Candidates for Singapore’s next president remain elusive

SINGAPORE’S next presidential election is due by mid-September, but likely new candidates have yet to emerge, at least officially. Strict requirements, introduced at the last election in 2017, may well mean a future of walkovers for this supposedly elected role.

To be sure, many Singaporeans may welcome a second term for current president Halimah Yacob. She turns 69 in August – younger than her predecessors Tony Tan and S R Nathan were at the start of their first terms.

If she does run again, a contest might be preferable. The historical significance of Halimah’s presidency – as Singapore’s first female president and first Malay president since founding president Yusof Ishak – was arguably tarnished by her uncontested election and controversy about the country’s first reserved presidency.

Of course, her current term should speak for itself. Still, a victory at the polls might grant greater weight to her continued presidency, in the eyes of disgruntled voters.

Yet the People’s Action Party (PAP) has historically been pessimistic about the ability of Singaporeans to look beyond ethnic lines. The PAP government may thus be reluctant to endorse a minority candidate from the establishment if they are up against one who – in their view, at least – ticks more electorally favourable demographic boxes.

Then again, the government may never have to face this dilemma. Strict requirements have reduced the likelihood of a non-establishment candidate surfacing, in this or future elections.

The potential pool of candidates was the focus of Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai, from the Progress Singapore Party, in a written parliamentary question in May. He asked for the estimated number of qualified candidates who fulfil the public sector and private sector requirements, respectively.

Replying on behalf of the Prime Minister, Minister-in-charge of the Public Service, Chan Chun Sing, said the Elections Department does not track this number. However, there are about 50 public service positions that may fulfil the public sector service requirement – that is, a potential candidate would have had to be in one of those roles for at least three years.

As for the private sector service requirement, there are more than 1,200 companies with average shareholders’ equity at or exceeding S$500 million, said Chan. A candidate relying on this requirement would have to have been the company’s most senior executive for at least three years.

There are undoubtedly good reasons for eligibility requirements. These include the fact that the president holds the important “second key” to the country’s reserves, and can prevent the government of the day from dipping into them.

Critical as this veto power is, the consequences of the strict rules are that, for better or worse, the likelihood of a robust presidential contest – akin to the four-way fight in 2011 – is low.

One might ask: Is this for better or worse? There is a school of thought in which the messy business of electoral politics is best avoided. Why open the door to divisive debate or, worse, deepen societal fault lines? How much easier and more sensible for an approved candidate to sail into office.

As efficient as this idea may be, however, it undermines the very reason for an elected presidency.

When the Constitution was amended in 1991 to provide for the president to be elected instead of being appointed by Parliament, the aim was to introduce a check on the government. Uncontested elections, in which government-backed candidates take office unopposed, fall short of this aim.

Singapore’s presidency is already plagued by preconceptions that the role is one of a mere “figurehead”. Each uncontested election will unfortunately only deepen this jaundiced view.