PART I | 1. This Act may be cited as the Parliamentary Elections Act. |
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; |
| “group” means a group of not less than 3 but not more than 6 candidates nominated for any election in any group representation constituency in accordance with section 27B; |
| “group representation constituency” means any electoral division declared to be a group representation constituency under section 8A(1)(a); |
| “Member” means a Member of Parliament; |
| “Parliament” means the Parliament of Singapore established by the Constitution; |
| “polling district” means a part of an electoral division subdivided under section 9; |
| “principal election agent” means an election agent of a candidate in a group who has been appointed under section 62(5) as the principal election agent for that group; |
| “register” or “register of electors” means the register of electors for any particular electoral division comprising sections, each of which shall relate to a polling district of that 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. [10/88; 9/91; 42/96; 18/99] |
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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. |
| (3) 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. |
| (4) An appointment made by the Minister under this section may be revoked by him at any time. |
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| Appointment of clerks and interpreters |
4.—(1) 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.| (2) The appointments made under subsection (1) may be revoked at any time. |
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| Qualification of electors |
5.—(1) Subject to sections 6 and 7, any person who on the prescribed date 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. |
[42/96] (2) For the purposes of the preparation or revision of any register of electors after 12th November 1954, 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 the prescribed date 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 the prescribed date in that year; | | (b) | to be not less than 21 years of age on the prescribed date 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 and polling district of the electoral division in which is situated the latest address shown in the register maintained by the Commissioner of National Registration. [42/96] |
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| (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 . |
| (4) For the purposes of subsections (1)and (2), the prescribed date shall be 1st July or such other date as the Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, specify. [42/96] |
| (5) No order shall be made under subsection (4) between the date of commencement of any preparation or revision of any register of electors for any year and the date of certification of that register under this Act (both dates inclusive). [42/96] |
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| 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; | | (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 Presidential Elections Act (Cap. 240A) or by reason of the report of an Election Judge in accordance with the provisions of this Act or the Presidential Elections Act or by reason of his conviction under section 55 of this Act or section 37 of the Presidential Elections Act; | | (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; | | (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); or | | (h) | is a person whose name has been expunged from the register of electors under section 26(5) of the Presidential Elections Act and whose name has not been restored to the register under section 26(8) of that Act. [27/91; 18/94] |
| (2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b), 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. |
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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. |
| (3) The court before which a person is convicted under subsection (2) 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. |
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| 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. [22/84] | (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] |
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| Group representation constituencies |
8A.—(1) For the purposes of electing Members of Parliament on a group basis to ensure the representation in Parliament of Members from the Malay, Indian and other minority communities under this Act, the President shall, subject to this section, by order published in the Gazette —| (a) | declare any electoral division, having regard to the number of electors in that division, to be a group representation constituency and designate that constituency as a constituency in which any election is to be held on the basis of a group of such number of candidates, being not less than 3 but not more than 6; and | | (b) | designate every group representation constituency as —| (i) | a constituency where at least one of the candidates in every group shall be a person belonging to the Malay community; or | | (ii) | a constituency where at least one of the candidates in every group shall be a person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities. [10/88; 9/91; 42/96] |
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| (1A) There shall at all times be at least 8 electoral divisions which are not group representation constituencies. [42/96] |
| (2) The number of Members to be returned by all group representation constituencies shall not be less than one-quarter of the total number of Members to be returned at a general election. [10/88; 9/91; 42/96] |
| (3) The number of group representation constituencies to be designated under subsection (1)(b)(i) shall be three-fifths of the total number of group representation constituencies; and where that number is not a whole number, it shall be rounded to the next higher whole number. [10/88] |
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| 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. |
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| (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). |
| (2A) Any alteration under subsection (1) 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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