Elections? What's That?

What are the Elections for?

To be very clear, there are 2 general types of Elections, i.e. Presidential Elections and Parliamentary Elections.


Parliamentary Election

In simple terms, Members of Parliament (MPs) represent the people of Singapore in Parliament to make national decisions in Parliament. There are 3 types of members of parliament, i.e. Elected MPs, Non-constituency MPs (NCMPs) and Nominated MPs (NMPs).

The Parliamentary Election is for the election of 2 types of MPs. All who win the fight at constituency level get a seat in Parliament and are known as Elected MPs, while the candiate with the highest percentage of votes without winning a seat will become NCMP.

To date, there are 84 seats up for grabs (Elected MPs), and slightly more than half the seats were contested in the 2006 elections.

Be default, the number of NCMPs = 3 - Number of Opposition MPs elected. E.g. In 2006 elections, there were 2 elected MPs from opposition, so No. of NCMP = 3 - 2 = 1. However, the President can say he thinks more NCMPs will be better and allow up to a maximum number of 6 NCMPs.  

Generally, Parliamentary Election takes place once every 5 years. The next Parliamentary Election is due before Feb 2012.

You may wish to read more about the Parliamentary Elections Act.

Presidential Election

As its name suggests, Presidential Election is for the election of the President. This takes place once every 6 years. The next Presidential Election is due in 2011.

According to the Constitution of Singapore, the President picks the Prime Minister from the basket of Members of Parliament (MPs) elected via the Parliamentary Election. After that, both of them will put together the Cabinet by choosing from the basket again.

Who gets to vote?

Minimally, you have to be a (i) citizen + (iii) over 21 years old to be eligible for voting + (iii) have been staying in Singapore for at least 30 days in the past 3 years. There are other factors which may render one ineligible to vote, e.g. facing death sentence, having joined an army not paid for by our government etc.

But being eligible doesn't mean you will get the chance to vote. An eligible voter will only get to vote if the constituency he is registered under is contested, i.e. more than 1 party fighting to be the MP for the area.

In the past 3 Parliamentary Elections, about 7 in 10 Singaporeans are eligible to vote. And depending on the number of seats contested, only about 30% to 55% of those eligible voters get to vote. In other words, 2 - 4 out of 10 Singaporeans get to vote.

Here's a quick summary of the past few parliamentary elections. Click on it to enlarge.

You may also wish to view the stats for all elections at www.singapore-elections.com.

Is it possible to trace my vote?

Someone asked this question in the earlier entry, and someone else put up a reply.

In gist, your ballot slip has a serial number, and that is tied to your name and NRIC number on a separate list. Technically, it is possible to trace which party you have voted for, but it is an offence to do so because your vote is SECRET.

I see this issue this way:
Firstly, no one is supposed to find out about your voting decision.
Secondly and most essentially, if you cannot bring yourself to be upfront about which party you want to voted for, then do not vote as such.

Can I tell someone which party I have voted for?

You can tell someone about your decision, but you cannot ask someone about his decision.

In addition, it is an offence to collect voting decisions, e.g. exit polls are disallowed. 

I am blind, how do I vote?

According to the Elections Act, you will let the presiding officer know your voting decision and he will mark your ballot slip for you.

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Next entry lined up:  

What does it mean for the opposition party to win any seat?

Gimme some time, I've been busy playing supportive partner, coz 'Good Fren' is quite ill. =(