GE2025: Overseas Singaporeans cast the first votes in Dubai, London and 3 US cities

NEW YORK – The first Singaporeans have begun voting in the 2025 General Election, led by those based in Dubai, followed by Londoners.

Overseas Singaporeans living in the US were third to begin voting at three polling stations in the country.  

Polls opened at Singapore’s overseas missions in Dubai, London, Washington, New York and San Francisco at 8am in their respective time zones on May 2. 

The rule is that overseas polls must close not later than the close of polls in Singapore, which is 8pm on Polling Day. Hence, voting at polling stations in some countries had to be held a day ahead of balloting in Singapore.

The other five overseas polling stations – in Beijing, Canberra, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo – are set to open their doors at 8am local time on May 3.

Some 18,389 Singaporeans – of the total number of 2,758,846 registered voters – are registered to vote overseas in this election. Of those, some 8,630 will vote in person, and the rest by post. 

“We expect a turnout of 1,743 voters across the three overseas polling stations in the United States,” a spokesperson for the Elections Department told The Straits Times. 

In the 2020 General Election, a total of 4,794 registered overseas voters turned up at the designated overseas polling stations to cast their votes. This represented a turnout of 72.97 per cent of the number of registered overseas voters.

Of the 33 electoral divisions, the highest number of overseas voters are registered in Tanjong Pagar GRC (1,703). Sembawang West SMC (81) has the fewest.

The first to turn up to vote at Singapore’s New York mission was Ms Celeste Chia, who walked in shortly after the polling station opened.

“It is a privilege to vote, and I believe it is important for everyone to do so,” said Ms Chia, who works in a corporate office in New York.

She was casting her vote for the second time as an overseas Singaporean after voting in Shanghai five years ago.

Another early bird was Ms Debbie Soon, 36, an entrepreneur and author, who took a three-hour flight from Miami to exercise her citizen’s privilege.

“Even though I don’t live in Singapore, my family and friends are still there, and I visit once or twice a year. I am very passionate about all things Singapore,” said Ms Soon, who co-founded a social marketplace focused on art with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s sister Randi Zuckerberg.

“As Singapore is a very small country with limited natural resources, needing to be able to future-proof against any kind of global volatility is top of mind,” she said after casting her vote.

“My nephews are six and four, so I think about education as well.”

Registered as a voter in Kebun Baru SMC, she first cast her ballot as a student in New York in 2015.

In Washington, DC, Ms Tan Lay Peng, who leads a finance team supporting infrastructure global practice clients at the World Bank, said on May 1 she was taking a half-day off work to vote for the first time in the general election. 

“I am usually knee-deep in budgets, but I am trading spreadsheets for the ballot to fulfil my civic duty to cast my vote,” said Ms Tan, who is in her 50s and was registered to vote in Jalan Besar GRC.

Although she has lived in the US for over 20 years, she said she had followed the campaigning keenly and felt vested in the outcome.

“Watching the rallies online, some of which feel like rock concerts, really brings home how far we’ve come. There’s a sense of energy and engagement that’s new and encouraging,” she said.

The issues being discussed, whether daily concerns like the cost of living or bigger questions about Singapore’s place in the world, resonate deeply, she said.

“And while I’m physically away, my family and friends are all back home. So I’m voting with the hope that Singapore continues to be a place of stability, opportunity and shared progress for everyone,” she added.

Mr Nigel Li, a student who moved to the US in 2023, said it was “almost poetic” that his first vote in a general election should take place in Washington.

“In the heart of the city, you are surrounded by monuments that proclaim the virtues of democracy.

“I may be just one voter out of many, but being mindful of this certainly makes me realise how sacred my one vote is,” said Mr Li, 25, who will soon graduate with a master’s degree from Georgetown University.

He is registered as a voter in Tanjong Pagar GRC.

As an overseas voter, he said he felt less impacted personally by bread-and-butter issues, but had been paying attention to what candidates were saying at rallies or on social media posts. 

“What’s on my mind is whether this election will usher in a new era of diverse voices in our political space and what that would mean for our republic,” he added.

Although Mr Li was not of voting age in the 2020 election, he did catch the GE fever.

He started a project, “SingaporeVotes”, which provided daily updates on the political campaigns and summaries of party manifestos. It was archived by the Library of Congress in 2020 as a website of historical record.

Ms Bonnie Datta, a third-time voter in San Francisco, said on May 1 she felt a sense of disquiet ahead of the election.  

“Rising political and economic tensions across the world impact a business person like me,” said Ms Datta, an e-mobility start-up founder who has lived in the US for 15 years. She is registered as a voter in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.

“These are the times when I want a very steady hand at the helm of Singapore.”

A small peeve was that she was “feeling no love” from the candidates. 

“There are quite a few of us in the US,” she said. “But nobody’s reached out to us.”

“I’m reading what is in the manifestos out of my own interest. Some amount of outreach would be great. We want to feel connected,” she added.

All ballot papers cast by overseas voters, both in person and via post, must reach Singapore within 10 days after Polling Day. 

The Returning Officer will arrange for the counting of overseas votes to be conducted in the presence of the candidates and their counting agents as soon as practicable after the 10th day following Polling Day.

The Returning Officer may extend time by another seven days for the overseas votes to reach Singapore if, for instance, the number of overseas votes is material to the election outcome, or if there are disruptions to the overseas postal services which cause a delay in the arrival of the mail-in votes.

As in past years, the Elections Department will release data on the total votes cast after the overseas votes have been counted. 

The share of votes cast for the different parties is published at an aggregate level (that is, local and overseas votes).

If the overseas votes have no impact on the outcome of the election, the candidate with the greatest number of votes is declared the winner.

But if the total number of overseas votes cast for a contested electoral division is greater than the difference between the number of local votes polled by the top two candidates or groups of candidates, the Returning Officer will defer the declaration of the candidate elected until the day the overseas votes are counted.