The registers of electors are being revised again – the
third time since 2006 General Election. (AFP File Photo)
Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong has directed that the registers of electors be
updated again — Singaporeans 21 years old and above, and new
immigrants who have taken up Singapore citizenship since Feb 1 last
year are now qualified to be electors.
The third revision since the May 2006
General Election, the notice published in the
Government Gazette yesterday indicated that changes will be
made and completed by Feb 18.
MPs and political observers have seen the move as a way to
ensure that there would be more eligible voters at the next polls
due by February next year, reported The Straits Times.
“It’s a good move to allow more people who are entitled to vote
to do so,” said Hong Kah GRC MP
Alvin Yeo. “Those not entitled to vote can also take steps to
put themselves back on the registers.”
Not everyone feels positively about the latest update,
however.
Mr Eugene Tan, a law lecturer at the
Singapore Management University, said there may be those who
take the skeptical view that the latest revision aims to include
more new citizens who are more supportive of the Government.
“But the revision will also include more young people, who are
perceived to be more unpredictable in their voting decisions and
less enamoured with the ruling
People’s Action Party,” he added.
News of the revision has also invited fresh speculation about
the timing of the next polls.
Ang Mo Kio GRC MP
Inderjit Singh believes that the
Electoral Boundaries Review Committee will release its report
shortly after the latest revision to reflect the most updated
demographic trends, paving the way for polls by June this year.
Polling and district boundaries will also be reviewed and
altered to ensure that no polling station handles too many or too
few voters.
The
Parliamentary Elections Act limits revision of voter rolls to a
maximum of three years after an election.
The rolls were revised once between the 1988 and 1991 general
elections and twice each time ahead of the elections in 1997, 2001
and 2006.
The second revision ahead of the 2006 General Election, for
instance, was ordered in January 2006 and completed by Feb 28, some
two months before the polls on May 6 that year.
Since the 2006 election, the registers have also been revised
twice – in February 2009 and February 2010.
The second revision showed 2,311,582 eligible voters as at March
31 last year, approximately 40,000 more than 2.26 million names on
the rolls after the first.
An Elections Department spokesman said more details about the
revision can be expected in two weeks’ time.
Source:
http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2011/01/04/voter-rolls-updated-again/
