VOTING in the 2023 Presidential Election got off to a rocky start on Friday (Sep 1) morning, as several polling stations around Singapore saw long queues due to a system glitch.

Queues formed at some polling stations even before they opened at 8 am. At Henry Park Primary School along Holland Road, many voters who showed up right when the polls opened had to queue for nearly an hour due to technical issues with the e-registration system.

The officials there had to resort to manual checks of voters’ identification documents and poll cards until the problem was resolved.

The Elections Department (ELD) said in a statement at 9.55 am that the technical issues were progressively being resolved, and that queues had improved at most polling stations. Nevertheless, the department encouraged Singaporeans to head to their designated polling stations throughout the day until the polls closed at 8 pm.

A total of 2,530,912 Singaporeans voted across 1,264 polling stations islandwide, representing 93.4 per cent of the 2,709,455 eligible voters.

Of their votes, 2,480,760 were cast for the candidates, while the remaining 50,152 votes were rejected.

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In the evening, many polling stations had almost no queues at all, with voters doing their duty in a matter of minutes.

Among those who were up early on Friday morning to cast their ballots were presidential candidates Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian, as well as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Halimah Yacob.

Ng was seen at Katong Community Centre at around 10 am to cast his ballot. The former GIC chief investment officer had earlier accompanied his fiancee Sybil Lau to Cairnhill Community Centre, where she cast her vote.

Meanwhile, Tan was at Anderson Serangoon Junior College at around 11 am to cast his vote. The former NTUC Income chief executive officer was accompanied by his wife Tay Siew Hong.

President Halimah was with her husband Mohamed Abdullah Alhabshee at the polling station at Chung Cheng High School on Goodman Road at around 8.15 am, while PM Lee and his wife, Ho Ching, arrived at Crescent Girls’ School in Tanglin to cast their votes at 9.25 am.

Heeding the ELD’s advice to head to their respective polling stations in the afternoon “when the queues are usually shorter”, the third presidential candidate – former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam – cast his vote after 5 pm. He was at Raffles Girls’ Primary School with his wife, Jane Ittogi.