The Election Department has announced that the Registration Officer is preparing the Registers of Electors in accordance with section 10(1)1 of the Parliamentary Elections Act based on the prescribed date of 1 Feb 2019.
Any person who satisfies the following qualifying criteria as of 1 Feb 2019 (i.e. the cut-off date for the Registers of Electors) will have his name included in the Register of Electors for an electoral division:
- is a citizen of Singapore (holder of pink NRIC);
- is not less than 21 years of age;
- is not disqualified from being an elector under any prevailing law;
- (i) has a Singapore residential address on his NRIC; or(ii) if he is residing overseas, and has changed his NRIC address to an overseas address, has a contact address in Singapore registered with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority for voting purpose (also known as a Local Contact Address).
A register of electors for an electoral division (also known as a constituency) is the list of all qualified electors in that electoral division. There is one register for each electoral division. Electoral divisions are areas within Singapore demarcated for the purposes of elections.
According to section 14 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, the Prime Minister may require the Registration Officer to revise the Registers of Electors from time to time. However, the registers shall be revised not later than 3 years after every general election.
In revising the Registers of Electors, the Registration Officer shall enter the names of all persons who are qualified to be electors in the appropriate registers. After the Registers of Electors are revised, the Registration Officer shall give notice that the registers have been revised and are open for inspection.
The Registers of Electors will be open for public inspection for 2 weeks towards the end of Feb 2019. The Elections Department will, at that point of time, also provide information on how Singaporeans can check the registers.
Pedra Branca to be included in East Coast GRC
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made a notification of his decision to include the island of Pedra Branca in the electoral division of East Coast, with the powers vested in him granted under Section 8 of the Parliamentary Elections Act. This was published today in the Government Gazette.
The East Coast electoral division already includes Tampines, Simei, Bedok, Upper Changi Road and several of Singapore’s other offshore islands such as Coney Island, Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong.
Further sign that election will be held this year
While the next general election must be held by 15 January 2021, this current announcement of the Registers of Electors being prepared by the Election Department lends further weight to the belief that the upcoming General Election will be held this year.
Back in 2015, the Registers of Electors were also revised in the month of Feb and the election was held in Sept that year. The last revision of the Registers was in June 2017.
