Singapore's Elections Dept lists safety measures for general election

THE Elections Department has spelt out the safety measures to be taken to ensure a safe election - measures that include reducing the number of voters in polling stations and barring people from entering the stations if they are found to be running a temperature and having breathing problems.

Apart from keeping voters, candidates and election officials safely spaced out at the polling stations, everyone entering the stations must also be masked, checked in for contact tracing and have their temperature screened.

"Anyone detected with fever or respiratory symptoms will be refused entry," Elections Department officials told the media in a briefing via video-conferencing on Monday.

To minimise exposure to unwell persons and those who have come into recent close contact with Covid-19 cases, Parliament recently passed an Act to provide special polling stations for voters on Stay-Home Notice, so they can vote.

As of May, there were around 1,000 of such voters; their number would be lower by now, said the Elections Department.

As for other affected voters, like those on Quarantine Orders, serving a Stay-Home Notice or who have been issued a medical certificate for acute respiratory symptoms, the department said it would consult the Ministry of Health (MOH) when the Writ of Election is issued to assess the public-health risks of allowing them to vote; it would decide "based on prevailing Covid-19 situation at that time".

To allow for safe distancing, the number of polling stations will be increased from 880 to 1,100, with the number of voters reduced from an average 3,000 to 2,400. Voters are advised not to bring non-voters to the polling stations.

Voters, who will register their votes electronically, will be allotted a recommended two-hour voting time-band to spread out voters across polling hours. Senior voters (age 65 and above) will be offered morning time-bands (8am to 12.30pm) as an added precautionary step, said the Elections Department.

Singapore must hold its next general election by April 2021. The expectation is that the election will be called next month, especially if Singapore moves on to Phase 2 of the re-opening of the economy at the end of June, when almost the entire economy would be re-opened.

But even then, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned in a nationally-televised address on Sunday that we would have to learn to live with Covid-19 for the long term - and that means continuing to observe safety precautions like social distancing.

The Elections Department said it would release guidelines on election campaigning only nearer to the election, "before the issue of the Writ", because rallies, walkabouts and house visit involve large group gatherings.

The guidelines would have to "depend on the Covid-19 situation at the time", the department said. If safe distancing at the election time restricts gathering to five people or fewer, then rallies would be out of the question, it said.

But if the situation improves and larger gatherings are allowed, then the guidelines would be adjusted accordingly.

For instance, the department explained, "if social-distancing measures allow 10 persons to congregate, then we will allow walkabouts, subject of course to safe-distancing requirements". "But if the guideline is such that it's only five, then we have to decide what (this means) in terms of walkabouts."

"Various scenarios" are being looked at in developing campaigning guidelines, the Election Department said, adding that it is also considering other forms of campaigning, including giving more TV air time to political parties and candidates.

"As Covid-19 is likely to be present beyond April 2021 ..., we strongly encourage candidates and political parties to plan for modes of campaigning that minimise large group gatherings," it said.

This includes e-campaigning, said the Election Department which also unveiled measures to increase transparency and accountability for paid Internet election advertising (IEA) on Monday.

In addition to declaring the platforms they are using for IEA, the new measures require candidates in the coming election to state whether they are using paid IEA, and if so, to provide further information on the type of services used; candidates will also have to disclose the publisher of the paid IEA, the period that the paid IEA will appear; whether the money was received for the placement of the paid IEA from the candidate, his election agent, his political party or any other person.