Getai performances will not be allowed before, during or after election rallies, said the police in a statement on Friday, emphasising that festivities for the Hungry Ghost Festival should be kept separate from politics.
The police also added that event organisers during the Hungry Ghost Festival “should ensure that no speeches intended to canvass support for election candidates and/or political parties are delivered (at) Seventh Month Festival events”.
The Hungry Ghost Festival months begins on Friday, and ends on 12th September, the date widely predicted to be designated Polling Day.
The Singapore Police Force also released new rules for the general elections, requiring rallies to be held at designated rally sites that will be made available.
The ballot method that was used for previous by-elections will be used, with a “give way” rule that would require political parties who have been allocated a site to defer to other parties wanting to use that same site at the same time the next day.
The “block ballot” system will also be used in constituencies where there are more contesting parties than there are rally sites. The final two or three nights of the hustings will be grouped together as a block, and candidates will only be allowed to apply for one site on one night within that block.
Details for balloting and allocation will be released after the issue of the Writ of Elections.
