The S$500 million question: When a presidential candidate doesn’t meet the mark
ON JUL 30, former NTUC Income chief executive Tan Kin Lian announced that he has submitted his application for a certificate of eligibility for the upcoming Presidential Election.
In a statement, the 75-year-old – who was one of four candidates at the 2011 election – highlighted his belief that of those who have openly declared their interest to contest this year, only he and former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam meet the full eligibility requirements.
To qualify as a candidate, a person must first satisfy the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) of having met either the public sector or private sector service requirements.
Articles 19(3) of the Constitution sets out the public sector service requirements, while Articles 19(4) sets out the requirements for the private sector.
Articles 19(3) states that a person should have held office as a minister, chief justice, speaker of Parliament, attorney-general, chairman of the Public Service Commission, auditor-general, accountant-general, or permanent secretary for at least three years.
According to Education Minister Chan Chun Sing’s written reply to a parliamentary question in May, about 50 public-service positions meet the public-sector service requirement to contest in the presidential election.
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Articles 19(4)(a) and 19(4)(b) are alternative ways of satisfying the private sector service requirement.
Under Article 19(4)(a), the candidate must be the chief executive of a company for three or more years, and the company must have, among other things, at least S$500 million in shareholders’ equity for the candidate’s most recent three‑year period of service as chief executive.
The company must also be profitable after tax for the entire time that the candidate was the chief executive.
“There are currently more than 1,200 companies with average shareholders’ equity at or exceeding S$500 million,” said Chan. “This means that the pool of eligible presidential candidates under Article 19(4)(a) is likely to be smaller than 1,200.
Alternatively, under Article 19(4)(b), the candidate must have three or more years of service in office in a private sector organisation, and the PEC must be satisfied that the candidate has the experience and ability comparable to that of a person who satisfies Article 19(4)(a).
Article 19(4)(b) is often referred to as the “deliberative track” as it allows the PEC to evaluate the applicant’s adequacy by taking into consideration a myriad of factors including the nature of the office, the size and complexity of the organisation and the applicant’s performance in that office.
The difference between Articles 19(4)(a) and 19(4)(b) came into focus following the debate over George Goh’s eligibility.
Goh, the founder of Harvey Norman Ossia, faces some difficulty qualifying under Article 19(4)(a). The company he serves as the group executive chairman – Ossia International – has a shareholders’ equity of about S$54 million as at Mar 31, 2023, well below the S$500 million benchmark.
Goh is seeking to qualify under Article 19(4)(b) as he claims to have managed five companies with a total shareholder equity of S$507 million, when averaged over a three-year period.
His eligibility would hinge on whether the PEC, having considered all related factors, consider him to be having the experience and ability comparable to that of a person who satisfies Article 19(4)(a).
On Aug 3, former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song said he has submitted his application for a COE via the public sector “deliberative track”, which he claimed is based on his experience and duration of service at GIC.
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