Two men have been charged on Wednesday (25 November) under the Parliamentary Elections Act for defacing, destroying, or removing election posters belonging to People’s Action Party (PAP) and Progress Singapore Party (PSP) in the last general election.
A 48-year old named Lim Song Huat faces three charges of destroying one PAP poster and defacing two more on 3 July.
The poster he is accused of defacing a poster was put up along the service road of Woodlands Street 12. The man allegedly drew a horizontal line across it at about 9.30am that day. As for the posters he destroyed, he tore it down with his hands before defacing it, around 15 minutes after the first act. The third poster was destroyed along the same road a few minutes later.
The second accused is Constantine Paul, 51, who was faces two charges of removing PSP posters in Bukit Batok. This happened on 30 June at night, when he allegedly pulled down two posters that were mounted on lamp posts along Bukit Batok East Avenue 5.
The two men are scheduled to return to Court in January to plead guilty.
Earlier this year in July, several police reports were filed by the PAP over damage done to their election posters in Hougang Avenue 10 and Woodlands Street 3. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) announced that a 48-year old man had been arrested for the latter crime.
The PSP similarly filed a police report over damaged election posters along Bukit Batok Avenue 5 and Hougang Avenue 10, for which the SPF said a 51-year old and a 13-year old were being investigated.
GE2020 was marked with a number of police reports lodged by parties and citizens alike over various things from damaged campaign posters to statements made by various candidates and alleged falsehoods.
In total, we counted 13 police reports filed during the campaign period until the Polling Day, 30 June to 10 July.
The Elections Department has earlier said it received more than 220 feedback and complaints from members of the public as well as political parties relating to posters and banners put up by candidates and political parties for GE2020.
These breaches included posters and banners being within 50m of a polling station, not carrying the Returning Officer’s stamp and being mounted below the 2.2 meter height requirement.
