SINGAPORE, Aug 23 — Some 6,649 Singaporeans who are living overseas have registered to vote for the upcoming Presidential Election with more than half, or 3,432, opting to vote through post — the first time this is being allowed here.
The rest of the overseas voters, some 3,217 of them, have opted to vote in person at overseas polling stations.
The number of voters based overseas who have registered to vote also increased slightly compared to the 6,570 who registered to vote during the General Election in 2020.
The option of voting by post comes after Parliament passed laws earlier in March to ease voting for Singaporeans overseas.
Before the change, overseas voters had to physically travel to polling stations in their specified locations which made it difficult for some Singaporeans to vote, especially during the Covid-19 travel restrictions in 2020.
The Elections Department Singapore (ELD) said today that overseas voters will be allowed to vote through post with the postal ballot paper and return envelope which can be downloaded, using SingPass, from the Electoral Department’s voter services online portal.
Postal voters are encouraged to mail their return envelope early with the marked ballot paper that must be postmarked before Polling Day on Sep 1, 2023, and reach the Returning Officer in Singapore by Sep 11 to be accepted for counting.
Overseas polling stations will be available in 10 locations abroad: Beijing, Canberra, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Washington D.C.
Singaporeans who have registered to vote at these polling stations would have been sent their ePoll letter indicating the specific polling date and time for their overseas polling station.
In the event that an overseas voter, who opted to vote through post or the overseas polling station, returns to Singapore on Polling Day, they will also be able to vote at their assigned polling station in Singapore.
The details would be available in the poll card which will be sent to their registered Singapore address or local contact address, as well as on the voter’s ePoll card that can be found on the SingPass app.
Every overseas voter is allowed to vote only once during the Presidential Election 2023, either overseas or at the assigned polling station in Singapore.
To prevent an overseas voter from double voting, the voter will be required to declare at the polling station in Singapore that they have not already voted in the same election before they are issued a ballot paper to vote. — TODAY
