SINGAPORE - The Workers' Party wants to take up the issue of when the Government should start counting the five presidential terms of office needed to trigger a reserved election.

On Facebook on Monday (Aug 28), the party said that its chairman Sylvia Lim had filed an adjournment motion to speak for up to 20 minutes on the topic.

If the Aljunied GRC MP is given the green light, she will deliver her speech when Parliament next sits on Sept 11.

Her motion is titled "Counting from President Wee Kim Wee or President Ong Teng Cheong - policy decision or legal question?"

It comes in the wake of intense public discussion after the parliamentary debates and a court case on the reserved presidential election, said the WP.

The party added that it was in the public interest for the Government to clarify the issue.

The Government chose to count from the final term of President Wee Kim Wee, who was the first president to exercise the powers of the elected president.

On this premise, the September 23 presidential election will be reserved for Malay candidates.

Others have argued the count should be from the term of President Ong Teng Cheong, the first president elected by the people.

Ms Lim first raised the issue in Parliament in February and, a month later, former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock mounted a legal challenge against the decision.

The Court of Appeal found last week that Parliament has the right to count from President Wee's term.