Singapore—Members of two opposition parties, the Workers’ Party (WP) and the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) said in separate social media posts that they had participated in briefings at the Elections Department on Friday, December 13, leading netizens to ask when the next General Election (GE) will be held.
On September 4, the Elections Department announced that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had convened the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, which signaled that the next GE would be coming soon. PM Lee’s administration is mandated to hold the elections before April 2021.
WP’s Gerald Giam wrote on his Facebook account that he and Sylvia Lim, the party’s Chairperson, along with several WP members, had been to the Elections Department on December 13.
“Attended a briefing with Sylvia Lim and other Workers’ Party colleagues at the Elections Dept today in preparation for the coming elections. Your vote remains secret so do what’s right for your family and nation!”
Mr Giam posted photos of himself and Ms Lim in front of the department, along with posters with instructions for Electronic Voter Registration (eRegistration), the use of the self-inking pen in the elections, how to fold and cast ballots.
In an answer to a question a netizen had asked in the comments to his post, Mr Giam added that they had reviewed the design of the counting machine, and that there had been “no issues.”
He added that “The only difference is we’ll get the results earlier.”
Similarly, SDP’s Bryan Lim Boon Heng posted on his Facebook account that he and Khung Wai Yeen had also gone to the briefing, saying that it centered around “digital services which would be employed in the next Elections.”
Mr Lim commented on the effectivity of the self-inking pen, calling it “remarkably good” since it does not require much strength to use, nor does it smudge easily, and noted that it is the same kind of pen used in elections in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. He and Mr Khung were able to try out not only the pen but also the counting machines and digital services.
In a comment to his post, he added that “the new ELD initiatives actually help to remove certain complexities on the voting process.”
On Saturday morning, December 14, Mr Lim posted a video that demonstrated how to work “the self-inkling pen which helps to reduce voting ambiguity & ease the adjudication process.”
https://www.facebook.com/BryanLimBH/videos/2548181238746078/
The opposition leaders also endeavored to answer all the questions netizens had regarding casting their ballots in the next election.
And one netizen asked the question that’s been on a lot of people’s minds since September 4.
-/TISG
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