The integrity of the election process took centrestage during a
two-hour forum this afternoon, organised by the People's
Association Youth Movement.
The 200 youths who attended the forum traded views with a
notable panel, among whom was Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee
Hean.
Joanne Chan was among those present and has the
highlights from the discussion.
It was a no-holds barred session, and the panel of 4 speakers
weighed in on various issues, answering questions about the
election procedures.
A major part of the discussion was used to clarify concerns over
the fairness of the voting process.
Some participants questioned the ability of civil servants to
carry out their electoral duties in a non-partisan manner.
"Understand that the vote counters are the civil servants. So
what's the process to appoint vote counters? So (what are) the
checks done to ensure that they are politically neutral?"
The panel was quick to point out the integrity of the voting
procedures.
Deputy Principal Senior State Counsel from the Attorney-General's
Chambers, Owi Beng Ki, stated that civil servants serve the
President.
"Civil servants under the constitution hold their allegiance to
the President. The symbolism that is attached to that is that we
actually serve at the pleasure of a politically neutral
institution. It is one of the values of the civil service that we
are politically impartial. "
Deputy Prime Minister Teo noted that the process itself is
transparent, and available to scrutiny from all parties.
"It's a process which is watched with eagle eyes by the
candidates and by persons whom the candidates themselves appoint as
counting agents. They're present in the counting centres, and they
watch with eagle eyes, everything that goes on in the counting
centres."
Another issue that drew much debate was the Prime Minister's
right to redraw constituency boundaries.
Mr Teo said it was necessary to change boundary configurations
from time to time to reflect population movement.
"The new family formation is something like 20,000 families a
year. And so these tend to move, and other people also move from
one constituency to another. And in Singapore they tend to be quite
clustered. So from time to time, there will be a necessity to
change the boundary configurations."
Other questions from the participants ranged from why online
voting isn't allowed, to where overseas voting is conducted.
An interesting fact was also unearthed; in the event a contested
ward ends in a draw, the outcome of the vote comes down to drawing
lots, or flipping a coin.
--938Live