PM Lee directs Elections Department to update voter registers

Voter rolls being updated again
No imminent election, say observers, who see second revision as routine
By Tham Yuen-C, The Straits Times, 3 Feb 2015

SINGAPORE'S lists of voters are being updated again, for the second time since the last general election in 2011.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has directed the revision of the Registers of Electors be made and completed by April 30, said a notice on the Government Gazette yesterday.

The routine exercise to keep the voter rolls up to date sparked excitement among some people about the timing of the next election, but MPs and political observers saw it as a way to ensure that everyone who was eligible to vote could do so at the next election, due by January 2017.

The first revision, which was completed last year, showed there were 2,411,188 eligible voters.

Yesterday, the Elections Department said in the gazette notice that the revision "is to bring the registers up to date".

The revised registers will contain the names of all Singapore citizens who qualify to be electors as of Feb 1 this year. It includes Singaporeans who turned 21 since Feb 1 last year, the cut-off date when the registers were last revised. Also included are new immigrants who have become citizens since Feb 1 last year.

Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, voter rolls must be updated not more than three years after a general election. The Act also lets the Prime Minister call for revisions from time to time.

Before the 2011 election, the voter rolls were revised three times - in February 2009, February 2010 and January 2011.

Previously, voter rolls were revised once or twice in between an election. Between the 1988 and 1991 General Elections, the rolls were revised just once.

But they were updated on two occasions each time ahead of the elections in 1997, 2001 and 2006.

Commenting on the latest revision, Singapore Management University law professor Eugene Tan, a former Nominated MP, said: "I don't think it points to an election being imminent. Given that the Elections Department has been making it a good practice to make regular updates, I see this as good housekeeping."

He also said the updates would ensure the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, when formed, will have the latest information on where people live, a factor in deciding how the boundaries of constituencies are determined.

MPs Zaqy Mohamad and Inderjit Singh also said the revision was a routine exercise.

Mr Zaqy said: "I wouldn't read too much into it. The updates are just to take into consideration any recent changes, for example, people moving homes, moving into new estates."

But Mr Singh said knowing how the population numbers have changed would lay the groundwork for the boundaries committee to do its work.

The convening of the boundaries committee is the first step on the road to calling an election. For the 2006 and 2011 elections, it took around four months to issue its report on electoral boundaries after it was formed. A few months after the report was issued, a general election was called.

Opposition veteran, lawyer announce GE bids
Goh Meng Seng and M. Ravi are not with any political party currently
By Tham Yuen-C And Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh, The Straits Times, 5 Feb 2015

OPPOSITION veteran Goh Meng Seng and lawyer-activist M. Ravi have become the first two persons who do not belong to a political party to declare they will run in the next general election.

Both men announced their decisions separately on Monday.

Mr Goh, 45, said in a Facebook post that he would "be back in politics to contest in the coming general election", while Mr Ravi, 45, announced at a conference that he would stand in Ang Mo Kio GRC and that several law interns would be in his team.

Speaking to The Straits Times yesterday, Mr Goh said he wanted to take on the "half-done" job of democratic reforms in Singapore, which he felt had been neglected by the opposition.

"When the WP (Workers' Party) won Aljunied GRC in 2011, it was one of the major milestones for the opposition, so I thought things would change and my mission was over. That was one of the main reasons I took a sabbatical," said the businessman.

"But in these three, four years, it has been quite disappointing. Nobody talks about democratic reform. Needless to say, the WP, with MPs inside Parliament, has more responsibility to do it."

He said he left party politics to focus on his business after the 2011 General Election.

Mr Goh had contested in two elections, each time with a different political party.

In May 2006, he stood and lost in Aljunied GRC on the Workers' Party ticket. He quit the WP six months later to take responsibility for Internet postings which he said had tarnished the party's reputation.

He joined the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in 2007 and was fielded in Tampines GRC in the 2011 polls. He quit the party after the polls and left for Hong Kong, but returns to Singapore regularly. On whether he would join a political party, form his own party or run as an independent, Mr Goh said he would keep his options open.

Meanwhile, Mr Ravi re-confirmed his intention to lead a team of independents to challenge the People's Action Party team in Ang Mo Kio GRC led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

He said he picked the six-MP constituency because "25 per cent of Ang Mo Kio residents are my relatives... I have both Chinese and Indian roots". The GRC had about 179,000 voters in the last election.

Yesterday, he told The Straits Times that blogger Han Hui Hui, 23, and two of his legal interns Charles Yeo, 24, and Liew Zheng Yang, 23, have confirmed they would be part of his team. He had considered blogger Roy Ngerng initially but later felt the 33-year-old was unsuitable as he was "too impulsive".

Mr Ravi is representing Ngerng and Han in a criminal case for their roles in a Hong Lim Park protest on Sept 27 last year. Separately, he is representing Ngerng in a defamation suit brought by PM Lee.

When asked why he chose not to join an existing party, Mr Ravi said he did not trust any of them.

But, he added, he will stay away from any constituency that is being contested by the Reform Party or Singapore Democratic Party.

On what he hopes to achieve in politics, he said his plans include giving free health care to all, lifting all online media regulations, and abolishing the death penalty - a cause he has championed for more than 10 years. As for funds for a campaign, he said: "I have $1 million for my campaign... I saved a lot over the years. I work very hard."