SINGAPORE - More than two million Singaporeans have turned up to cast their votes at the 832 polling stations islandwide on Friday (Sept 11), the latest numbers show.
In a statement, the Elections Department said that 2,085,676 Singaporeans had turned up to vote as of 5pm.
As many as 2.46 million Singaporeans across the island are expected to vote by 8pm in the first general election in 50 years where every single seat is contested.
A total of eight opposition parties are challenging the ruling People's Action Party in this election.
Singaporeans will pick 89 Members of Parliament for 16 group representation constituencies (GRCs) and 13 single-member constituencies (SMCs).
No ballot papers will be issued after polling closes at 8pm.
After polling closes, the public and supporters of the political parties can gather at four assembly centres to wait for the announcement of the election results.
The People's Action Party, which is contesting all 89 seats, has three assembly centres at Toa Payoh Stadium, Jurong West Stadium and Bedok Stadium. The Workers' Party, which is contesting 28 seats, has one at Hougang Stadium.
These centres will be open from 8pm tonight until 30 minutes after the announcement of the last result of the elections.
For the first time, the Elections Department will first reveal "sample count" results for each of the 16 group representation constituencies and 13 single-seat wards.
A hundred ballot papers from each polling stations will be randomly chosen by a counting assistant in the presence of the candidates and their counting agents.
The votes will be added up and weighted accordingly to account for the difference in the number of votes cast at each polling station. The sample count for each constituency will be shown as a percentage of the valid votes earned by the candidates.
Sample counts are generally about 95 per cent accurate, plus or minus four percentage points. The first sample count results will probably come from the single-seat wards where there are fewer voters and could be released from about 10pm.
