GE2025: What time will the election results be out?
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After polling stations close at 8pm, the ballots are transported to counting centres and the counting begins almost immediately.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
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SINGAPORE - Now that voting is just about done for Singapore’s 2025 General Election, the big question is: When will the results be known?
If history is any guide, the final results will be known tonight, or rather, the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Just exactly when will depend on how close the races are.
Here is how the night will play out.
After polling stations close at 8pm, the ballots are transported to counting centres and the counting begins almost immediately.
The first real indication of the way the polls will go will come when the sample count results are released. This typically happens around 90 minutes from the time polls close, so start looking out for sample count results after 9pm.
The Straits Times will be publishing the sample counts as we get them on our live blog. get instant updates here election night show live.
The sample count is given as a percentage of votes for each candidate. It is quicker to produce a sample count for the smaller constituencies, so expect to see the results for the single member constituencies first.
Based on the past two elections, these counts will all be released within the span of an hour. So expect the sample count for all constituencies before 11pm.
From then on, it will not be a long wait until the official results are announced. The Returning Officer Han Kok Juan will read out the results one by one as they come in.
In 2015, the first official result came out about 3½ hours after polls closed that night. Start looking out for announcements from the Returning Officer at around 11.30pm.
The last result of the night will depend on whether there is a recount. A recount will be automatically conducted if the difference in votes between candidates contesting a constituency is 2 per cent or less of the total number of valid votes cast.
There was no recount in 2020, and one recount was triggered in 2015. During both elections, the final result was announced between 3am and 4am.
