SINGAPORE - Singaporeans will elect the country’s ninth president after nine days of campaigning and one day to cool off and reflect, in the first contested presidential election since 2011.
Election officials were busy on Thursday setting up polling stations for up to 2,709,407 eligible voters to cast their ballots.
In the running are former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song, 75, former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 66, and former NTUC Income chief Tan Kin Lian, 75.
Formally announced as candidates on Nomination Day on Aug 22, the three have criss-crossed Singapore on walkabouts in the days since – save for Cooling-off Day on Thursday – making the most of the campaign period to meet and greet voters, and to get their messages across.
As the head of state, Singapore’s president plays a largely ceremonial role, but he or she also has custodial powers over the use of the country’s past reserves and the appointment of senior officials.
The limits of the president’s role and how candidates would perform their custodial functions and unifying role loomed large in the nine-day campaign.
Amid the candidates’ messages about their track record of independence, non-partisanship and experience in shepherding the finances of large institutions, critics had also chimed in to question the institution of the elected presidency itself.
At one point, the Elections Department issued a statement to clarify the remit of the president.
On Wednesday night, in their final chance to speak to voters during the second political broadcast, the candidates took the opportunity to underline how their credentials and experiences would make them the most suitable person for the role.
This election is only the third such contest since the elected presidency was introduced in 1991, with the first one held in 1993 and the second in 2011. A sizeable number will be voting for their president for the first time.
A big push was made by all three candidates to go for the youth vote, with some of them going on podcast shows hosted by young people, engaging influencers, and live-streaming on social media, often taking the opportunity to show a more human and casual side.
During the nine days of campaigning, all three candidates also went to markets, hawker centres and town centres, shaking hands and snapping wefies with voters.
Mr Ng was often accompanied by his fiancee Sybil Lau, 45, while Mr Tharman was accompanied by his wife Jane Ittogi, 69. Mr Tan’s wife Tay Siew Hong, 67, accompanied him some of the time.
On Friday, polling stations will be open from 8am to 8pm for voters to cast their ballots.
Following the experience of the 2020 General Election, when long queues at some polling stations forced polling time to be extended beyond 8pm, more polling stations have been added this time.
Each polling station will also have more registration counters and ballot paper counters, with more election officials deployed than in the last general election, to reduce voter waiting time.
Voters will be able to check the queue situation at their designated polling station on the VoteQ website by scanning a QR code on their poll card.
This election, 3,432 Singaporeans living overseas will also be voting by post for the first time, and would have done so before Friday, since their envelopes have to be postmarked before Polling Day in Singapore.
The remaining 3,217 overseas voters will make the trek to one of 10 overseas polling stations in Beijing, Canberra, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo and Washington.
In the 2011 presidential race between four candidates, official results were declared only at 4.30am, after a recount was requested at 1am.
This time, an official sample count will be made public about three hours after polls close. This means that by around 10pm to 11pm, Singaporeans might already have an indication of who their next president will be.
