Voter rolls being updated, public inspection to open in June
Singapore’s voter rolls are being updated and will be open for public inspection in June.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has directed that the Registers of Electors be revised, and for the revision to be completed before July 31, said the Elections Department (ELD) in a statement on May 20.
The exercise, meant to bring the registers up to date, will contain the names of all Singapore citizens who qualify to be electors as at June 1 and comes ahead of a general election that must be held by November 2025.
The update will include Singaporeans who have turned 21 since June 1, 2023, the cut-off date when the registers were last revised. Also included are new immigrants who have become citizens since June 1, 2023.
There is a register of electors for each electoral division in Singapore. Taken together, the Registers of Electors for all 31 group representation constituencies and single-member constituencies tally all qualified voters in the Republic.
The lists of Singaporeans eligible to vote in elections here were last updated on June 1, 2023, and were open for public inspection a fortnight later, from June 15 to June 28.
On July 20, 2023, ELD announced that the voter rolls had been certified, and that there were a total of 2,709,455 electors – an increase of more than 55,000 people from the 2,653,942 eligible voters in the 2020 General Election.
Then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong issued the Writ of Election for the 2023 Presidential Election (PE) on Aug 11, 2023, and Singaporeans went to the polls on Sept 1.
The certification of the registers is a routine exercise that must be done after the registers are revised between elections. Despite this, the updating of voter rolls has often sparked speculation that a general election is looming.
There has been no fixed period between the certification of the registers and the time that an election was called in the past. The voter rolls have also been updated multiple times in a term.
Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, the prime minister may, from time to time, require that the Registers of Electors be revised, although such an exercise must not be done later than three years after the last general election.
In November 2023, the ELD said Singaporeans who failed to cast their votes during PE2023 can apply to restore their names to the Registers of Electors.
They can check their voter status and make their application online, or do so in person at community centres or clubs, ServiceSG centres near their homes, or the ELD office.
More details will be provided on how Singaporeans can check the Registers of Electors when they are open for public inspection in June, said the ELD on May 20.
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