Friday is Polling Day for Singapore’s presidential election.

There are many Singaporeans living here who will be overseas on that day, as they have already booked holiday or business trips. 

It is not reasonable to expect them to cancel, cut short or postpone their holiday or business travel, as it may involve, for example, non-refundable flights or hotel bookings. 

For travellers who are going to be in cities where resident Singaporeans can vote at the local high commission or embassy, it makes sense to also allow them to walk into such places and vote. After all, these overseas polling stations would already have been set up for Singaporeans living overseas to cast their votes. It seems a simple thing to implement, with no security or fraud risks.

Alternatively, perhaps these travellers could be allowed to register as overseas postal voters. 

I will be in London on Polling Day. I first tried to register myself as an overseas voter, so that I could vote in London or vote by post, but discovered that only a Singaporean living abroad is allowed to do so.

I then tried to see if I could walk into the Singapore embassy in London to vote, but that is also not allowed. It seems the only way I can vote is to cut short my travel and return home before Friday, but this is not feasible. 

It would be worthwhile for the Elections Department to come up with a mechanism to let citizens who wish to vote while travelling overseas on Polling Day do so.

Even though the department recognises that there will be people travelling overseas on Polling Day, and these travellers can apply in advance to have their names reinstated on the rolls after the election is over, this is small comfort.

The right to vote is the single most powerful tenet of any democracy, and we must try our hardest to make it possible for every citizen to vote even when overseas. 

Rahul Patwardhan