Votes from Singaporeans overseas were counted by the Elections Department Singapore (ELD) yesterday (July 15).
The ELD released a statement saying 4,794 registered overseas pollers casted their votes at the 10 overseas polling stations, which is 72.97 percent of the total number of registered electors, which is an increase from the GE2015.
According to Straits Times, there were 1,379 more voters this time round.
Which is the largest turnout of votes since 1997.
Workers’ Party’s (WP) East Coast GRC candidate Terence Tan posted on Facebook, thanking the voters overseas who exercised their “constitutional right”.
According to the ELD, the polling stations stationed overseas have to close before the polling actually ends in Singapore. The ballot boxed will then be moved to Singapore for counting within 10 days after Polling Day for the votes to be counted.
It is worth noting that the Returning Officer has the discretion to extend the time for the ballot boxes to reach Singapore by another seven days, provided they meed the following criteria:
- the total number of overseas electors is material to the election outcome,
- and the Returning Officer is satisfied that any of the overseas ballot boxes is not likely to reach Singapore within the initial 10-day period.
The WP and Progress Singapore Party (PSP) members arrived at the Elections Depeartment Training Centre at victoria Street to witness the counting process.