Presidential election: What happens after Polling Day
Zhao Yifan
VOTERS will be heading to the polling stations on Friday (Sep 1) for Singapore’s first contested presidential election in 12 years.
They will have a choice of three candidates: ex-GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song, former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and former chief executive of NTUC Income Tan Kin Lian.
Here is what will happen after Polling Day.
Polling Day: Sep 1
Eligible voters can cast their votes between 8 am and 8 pm. After polls close, the ballot boxes will be transported to the counting centres.
Counting of votes cast in Singapore
Counting of local votes will commence immediately after the close of the polls. This will usually take place on the night of Polling Day, and may continue into the early hours of the next day.
Recount
If the difference between the number of votes cast in favour of the candidate with the most votes and the number of votes cast in favour of any other candidate is equal to, or less than, 2 per cent of the total number of votes cast (excluding rejected votes and tendered votes), the Returning Officer must conduct one – and only one – recount of the votes.
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In the 2011 presidential election, the Elections Department announced in a statement at 1.19 am on Aug 28 that it had started the recount. This came as the top two candidates, Tony Tan and Tan Cheng Bock, had a margin of less than 2 per cent during the initial counting.
Announcement of results
Singapore’s Returning Officer Tan Meng Dui will announce the outcome on completion of the count.
If the total number of registered overseas voters is smaller than the difference between the top two candidates’ shares of local votes, the Returning Officer will declare the candidate with the highest number of votes the winner.
Otherwise, the number of votes cast locally for each candidate will be announced, but the declaration of who has been elected will be deferred until overseas votes are counted. The Returning Officer will also announce the date, and venue, on which the ballot papers cast overseas will be counted.
The exact details of when the results will be broadcast have yet to be released. In the 2011 presidential election, the results were announced by Returning Officer Yam Ah Mee in a live telecast at about 4.23 am on Aug 28, the morning following Polling Day, after all votes cast in Singapore had been counted.
Cut-off date for overseas postal votes: Sep 11
Postal votes from registered overseas voters must reach Singapore’s Returning Officer by Sep 11, the 10th day after Polling Day.
President Halimah Yacob’s term of office expires: Sep 13
President Halimah Yacob’s term of office will expire on Sep 13, when she completes her six-year tenure as the eighth president of Singapore.
She was declared the president-elect on Sep 13, 2017, after the first reserved presidential election in Singapore’s history. She is also Singapore’s first female president and first Malay head of state in 47 years.
She had previously declared on May 29 that she would not be standing for re-election.
Inauguration day: Sep 14
The newly-elected president will be sworn in as the ninth president of Singapore at the Istana, where he will deliver an inauguration speech.
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