Elections Department opens tender for 150 polling booths

Following the sudden announcement of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) formation last Wednesday, the Elections Department (ELD) has now put up tender to obtain at least 150 booths that will be used for polling.

This was revealed in tender documents that was published on government procurement portal GeBIZ published on Tuesday (10 September).

According to the documents, the booths should be ready and be delivered by 31 October. Although the details in the papers did not state when the contract would be awarded, it noted that the polling booths have to be delivered within six weeks after the contact is given.

For suppliers who would want to participate, they can submit their bids through GeBIZ by next Thursday (19 September).

As for the booths’ requirements, some of the things mentioned in the documents include having a vertical stand and writing table-top, and both parts of it should only be in white colour without any marks or colour shades.

If that’s not all, the measurement of the table top should also be 1m high and the vertical stand, 1.75m. As for the booths’ material, they must be made of corrugated board or other kinds of board that is environmentally sustainable. The documents also stated that the booth should also be assembled within a minute.

Although the tender papers clearly specified that 150 polling booths required, there is still an option for another 50 to 350 booths.

With the tender documents being put up by the ELD and the announcement of EBRC last week, it clearly shows that the general election is just around the corner and can be held within a few months. The GE has to be held by April 2021.

On 10 July, the ELD has called a three-year tender to provide documents-related services, including printing, packing and delivering.

The contractor who will be awarded the tender will be bound by a contract starting 28 Aug this year to 27 Aug 2022, which stipulates that in addition to:

• printing and packing items such as printed cards, forms, posters, signs, ballot box funnels and plastic folders, and
• delivering documents to poll stations, counting centres and the ELD training centre,

If that’s not all, the contractor to whom the tender is awarded will also be responsible for providing a secured storage facility for election materials with closed-circuit surveillance cameras (CCTV) and physical access controls.

This document-related services tender is the second tender called by the ELD in the span of two months after it opened a tender for the provision of bus transportation services to support election operations. The contract was awarded to ComfortDelGro Bus.

On 23 August, ELD also opened tender for the supply of computers, which includes laptops. Its closing date was 2 September and it has yet to be awarded.