SINGAPORE will go to the polls on Friday July 10 in a general election (GE) that is likely to see contests in all 93 seats in 31 constituencies. Up to 2.65 million Singaporeans will cast their vote.

Nomination Day is set for June 30, making for a nine-day campaigning period which will take place without physical rallies due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Interested candidates must file their papers at one of nine respective nomination centres that day, between 11am and noon.

Polling Day will be declared a public holiday, with employers required to allow "a reasonable period of time for voting" for employees who must still work that day.

The Writ of Election was issued by President Halimah Yacob at 4.45 pm on Tuesday afternoon, after she dissolved Parliament earlier that day in a 4.20pm proclamation in the Government Gazette. In a national broadcast at 4pm on Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he had met President Halimah earlier that day to advise her to dissolve Parliament and issue the Writ.

"The Prime Minister also advised that Nomination Day be on Tuesday, 30 June 2020, and the President has agreed," said the Prime Minister's Office in a separate statement announcing the date of Nomination Day.

As of the last update on April 15 this year, there are 2,653,942 registered electors, up from 2,460,977 in 2015. They will be voting across 31 electoral divisions: 14 Single Member Constituencies (SMCs), up from 13 in the last election, and 17 four- and five-member Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs), in line with the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee report released on March 13.

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Safety measures for holding elections and preliminary guidelines for political campaigning during the Covid-19 pandemic were released earlier this month. The Returning Officer for this GE is National Environment Agency chief executive officer Tan Meng Dui.

The election deposit has been set at S$13,500 per candidate, down from S$14,500 in 2015. Payment must be made before noon on Nomination Day, any time after the Writ of Election has been issued.

In a statement, the Elections Department Singapore (ELD) encouraged candidates to use the digital service on its website to prepare their Nomination Paper, check that their six required electors belong to the right electoral division, and print it before Nomination Day.

Candidates can also download the Nomination Paper from the ELD website or get hard copies from the office of the Returning Officer at the ELD between 8.30am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, and between 8.30am and 1pm on Saturday.

Each SMC candidate or group of candidates for GRCs must have a proposer, a seconder, and at least four assentors who are registered for the electoral division in which the candidate or group wishes to contest. They must also be accompanied by such subscribers when submitting the nomination paper.

The ELD noted that candidates should find a replacement if any of their subscribers is on Stay-Home Notice or Quarantine Order; on medical certificate for acute respiratory infection; or having a fever or acute respiratory infection symptoms, as they will not be allowed to enter the Nomination Centre.

Every candidate must also obtain a Political Donation Certificate from the Registrar of Political Donations, with ELD encouraging candidates to submit their applications online no later than June 26. Applications can also be submitted in person.

Groups of candidates seeking election in a GRC will also need a certificate from either the Malay Community Committee or the Indian and Other Minority Communities Committee, relating to at least one member of the team, as specified for each GRC. All applications must be submitted no later than June 26.

For more of our Singapore GE2020 coverage, go to bt.sg/ge2020