Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 - Singapore Statutes Online

Election of Members on group basis in group representation constituencies

27A.—(1) In every general election of Members and the election of Members to supply vacancies caused by death, resignation or otherwise, the Members for any group representation constituency must be elected in accordance with this Act subject to the modifications in this section.

(2) All elections in any group representation constituency must be held on a basis of a group of such number of candidates as designated for that constituency by the President under section 8A(1)(a).

(3) Subject to subsection (4), any group that desires to contest in any election in any group representation constituency must consist of the number of candidates designated for that constituency by the President under section 8A(1)(a), all of whom must either be —

(a)	members of the same political party standing for such election for that political party; or
(b)	independent candidates standing as a group.

(4) Where any group representation constituency is —

(a)	a constituency designated under section 8A(1)(b)(i), at least one of the candidates in every group must be a person belonging to the Malay community; or
(b)	a constituency designated under section 8A(1)(b)(ii), at least one of the candidates in every group must be a person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities.

(5) At any time after the date of the notice of the writ referred to in section 25 and at least 2 clear days before the day of nomination, any person —

(a)	belonging to the Malay community who desires to contest as such a person in any election in any constituency designated under section 8A(1)(b)(i); or
(b)	belonging to the Indian or other minority communities who desires to contest as such a person in any election in any constituency designated under section 8A(1)(b)(ii),

must apply in the prescribed manner to the appropriate Committee for a certificate in the prescribed form which certifies whether the applicant is a person belonging to the Malay community or a person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities (as the case may be) for the purposes of any such election.

(6) Upon receipt of any application under subsection (5), the appropriate Committee must —

(a)	determine whether the applicant is a person belonging to the Malay community or a person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities; and
(b)	if the appropriate Committee considers that the applicant is a person belonging to the Malay community or a person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities, issue to the applicant not later than the day before the day of nomination a certificate certifying that to be the fact.

(7) Any such certificate is, for the purposes of this Act, conclusive as to the fact which it certifies.

(8) In this section and section 27C —

“Committee” means the Malay Community Committee or Indian and Other Minority Communities Committee established under section 27C;

“person belonging to the Malay community” means any person, whether of the Malay race or otherwise, who considers himself or herself to be a member of the Malay community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community;

“person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities” means —

(a)	any person of Indian origin who considers himself or herself to be a member of the Indian community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Indian community by that community; or
(b)	any person who belongs to any minority community other than the Malay or Indian community.

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