Murali gets 24 of 32 overseas votes cast

A total of 32 votes were cast overseas for the Bukit Batok by-election, the Elections Department (ELD) said yesterday.

Lawyer Murali Pillai of the People's Action Party won 24 of these votes, while his opponent Chee Soon Juan, chief of the Singapore Democratic Party, got eight votes. Mr Murali won the by-election last Saturday with 61.2 per cent of the votes.

In all, there were 52 registered overseas electors for the Bukit Batok single-member constituency.

With the overseas votes, the number of votes cast in the May 7 by-election totals 24,224, including 622 rejected votes. This works out to 94.16 per cent of the 25,727 registered electors in the constituency, ELD added. The final vote count for Mr Murali now stands at 14,452 votes (61.23 per cent) and for Dr Chee, 9,150 (38.77 per cent).

Robber jailed for 12 months

A 21-year-old dishwasher, who was placed on probation for theft, went on to commit a similar offence just three months later.

This time, he tailed a trainee lawyer and then restrained her and robbed her. Muhammad Hairuldin Osman was yesterday jailed for one year after he pleaded guilty to a charge of using criminal force in committing theft.

He admitted to another count of the same, which was taken into consideration during sentencing.

Hairuldin had been sentenced on Nov 9 last year to 18 months' probation for theft. As part of his probation, he was supposed to remain at home between 10pm and 6am.

In both cases, Hairuldin had committed the theft after 10pm.

WDA warns against abuse of SkillsFuture

The Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) yesterday issued a Facebook post about some individuals and organisations offering cash to members of the public in exchange for the use of their SkillsFuture Credit.

It said it "takes a serious view of any individual or organisation that abuses the SkillsFuture Credit scheme" and urged people to report any suspicious offers.