Parliamentary Elections Act

(CHAPTER 218)

(Original Enactment: Ordinance 26 of 1954)

REVISED EDITION 1985

(30th March 1987)

An Act to make provision for Parliamentary Elections.

[12th November 1954]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Parliamentary Elections Act.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“candidate” means a person who is nominated as a candidate for election to any seat in Parliament;

“Commissioner of National Registration” means the Commissioner of National Registration appointed under the National Registration Act [Cap. 201];

“election” means an election for the purpose of electing a Member of Parliament;

“elector” means a person whose name is entered in a register as an elector to vote at an election;

“electoral division” means an electoral division specified in the notification for the time being in force under section 8;

“general election” means a general election of Members after a dissolution of Parliament;

“Member” means a Member of Parliament;

“Parliament” means the Parliament of Singapore established by the Constitution;

“Parliamentary Secretary” means a Member of Parliament appointed either by the Prime Minister or a Minister to be a Parliamentary Secretary to assist the Minister in the discharge of such of his duties and functions as may be specified in his letter of appointment;

“polling district” means a part of an electoral division subdivided under section 9;

“register” or “register of electors” means the register of electors for any particular electoral division;

“Registration Officer” and “Assistant Registration Officer” mean respectively the Registration Officer and an Assistant Registration Officer appointed under section 3;

“Returning Officer” means the Returning Officer appointed under section 3;

“Revising Officer” means a Revising Officer appointed under section 12;

“voter” means a person who, whether his name does or does not appear in a register of electors, applies to vote or votes at an election.

Appointment of officers

3.—(1) The Minister may appoint a Registration Officer and a Returning Officer and such Assistant Registration Officers as he may from time to time think fit.

(2) An Assistant Registration Officer shall have all the powers and may perform all the duties of the Registration Officer and any reference in this Act to the Registration Officer shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be deemed to include a reference to an Assistant Registration Officer.

(3) An appointment made by the Minister under this section may be revoked by him at any time.

Appointment of clerks and interpreters

4. The Registration Officer and the Returning Officer may, from time to time, appoint such numbers of clerks and interpreters as may be necessary for the purposes of this Act and those appointments may be revoked at any time.

Qualification of electors

5.—(1) Subject to sections 6 and 7, any person who on 1st July in any year —

(a)	is a citizen of Singapore;
(b)	is ordinarily resident in Singapore; and
(c)	is not less than 21 years of age,

shall be entitled to have his name entered or retained in a register of electors in that year.

(2) For the purposes of the preparation or revision of any register of electors after the commencement of this Act, a person who is a citizen of Singapore and to whom an identity card has been issued or deemed to have been issued on or before 1st July in any year under the provisions of the National Registration Act [Cap. 201] and has not been withdrawn shall, until the contrary be shown, be presumed —

(a)	to be ordinarily resident in Singapore on 1st July in that year;
(b)	to be not less than 21 years of age on 1st July in that year, if from the particulars recorded in the register maintained by the Commissioner of National Registration he appears to be not less than that age on that date; and
(c)	to reside in the electoral division in which is situated the latest address shown in the register maintained by the Commissioner of National Registration.

(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2), the Registration Officer may, in preparing or revising any register of electors, omit therefrom the name of any person where he has reason to believe that the latest address of the person shown in the register maintained by the Commissioner of National Registration has ceased to exist or to be used as a place of residence.

Disqualification of electors

6.—(1) No person shall be entitled to have his name entered or retained in any register of electors if he —

(a)

has taken any oath or made any declaration or acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience or adherence to any foreign power or state or does, concurs in or adopts any act done with the intention that he shall become a subject or citizen of any foreign power or state or is the holder of a passport issued by any foreign power or state;

(b)

is serving a sentence of imprisonment (by whatever name called) imposed by any court in Singapore or in Malaysia or any other part of the Commonwealth, for an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term exceeding 12 months, or is under sentence of death imposed by any such court or is serving a sentence of imprisonment awarded in lieu of execution of any such sentence:

Provided that where the conviction is by a court of law in Malaysia or any other part of the Commonwealth, the person shall not be so disqualified unless the offence is also one which, had it been committed in Singapore, would have been punishable by a court of law in Singapore;

(c)

is under any written law found or declared to be of unsound mind;

(d)

is incapable of being registered by reason of his conviction of a corrupt or illegal practice under this Act or the repealed Ordinance or by reason of the report of an Election Judge in accordance with the provisions of this Act or of the repealed Ordinance, or by reason of his conviction under section 55 of this Act or under section 50 of the repealed Ordinance;

(e)

is a serving member on full pay of any naval, military or air force not maintained out of moneys provided by Parliament unless he possesses a domicile in Singapore;

(f)

is a person whose name is entered on a register of electors in any other country or territory; or

(g)

is a person whose name has been expunged from the register under sections 13(3) and 43(5) and whose name has not been restored to the register under section 43(8).

In paragraph (d) “the repealed Ordinance” means the Singapore Legislative Council Elections Ordinance 1947.

[24/47]

Plural voting

7.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, a person shall be entitled to have his name entered in the register of one electoral division only.

(2) If any person at any election votes in any electoral division other than that in which he is registered, he shall be guilty of an illegal practice:

Provided that the court before which a person is convicted under this subsection may in its discretion in the circumstances of any particular case mitigate or remit any penalty or incapacity which may be imposed in respect thereof under section 79.

Electoral divisions

8.—(1) The Minister may, from time to time, by notification in the Gazette, specify the names and boundaries of the electoral divisions of Singapore for purposes of elections under this Act.

(2) The number of electoral divisions of Singapore shall be the total number of the electoral divisions specified in the notification made under subsection (1).

[22/84]

Polling districts and polling stations

9.—(1) Whenever any electoral division of Singapore is altered or a new division is created, the Registration Officer shall —

(a)

subdivide that division into polling districts;

(b)

assign to each such polling district a distinguishing letter or letters; and

(c)

publish in the Gazette a notice in the Form 2 in the First Schedule specifying —

(i)	the polling districts into which that electoral division has been subdivided; and
(ii)	the distinguishing letter or letters assigned to each such polling district.

(2) The subdivision of an electoral division into polling districts may be altered by the Registration Officer as occasion may require; and upon any such alteration being made he shall publish in the Gazette a notice specifying in relation to that electoral division the particulars mentioned in subsection (1)(c). Any such alteration shall come into effect on the date of the publication of the notice under section 20(1) relating to the next certification of the register of electors for that electoral division, but the revision of the register before such certification shall be made on the basis of that alteration.

(3) The Returning Officer shall provide as many polling stations for a polling district as are in his opinion sufficient for that polling district and may in his discretion provide as many polling places within each polling station as he considers necessary.

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