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2023 Singaporean presidential election

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2023 Singaporean presidential election
← 2017 By 13 October 2023[1] 2029 →
President before election

Halimah Yacob
Independent

Elected President

TBD

This article is part of a series on
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Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Singapore by 13 October 2023 to elect the next president after Halimah Yacob's term ends.

Background

Main article: President of Singapore
See also: Presidential elections in Singapore

The president of Singapore is the head of state of Republic of Singapore. The incumbent president is Halimah Yacob, who took office on 14 September 2017. She is also the first female president in the country's history.

Modelled after the Westminster system, the office is largely ceremonial, with the general direction and control of the Government exercised by the Cabinet led by the prime minister. However, the president has several powers designed to safeguard the national reserves and the integrity of the public service. Such powers include withholding assent to any supply bill that is likely to draw on the reserves which were not accumulated by the Government during its current term of office and refusing to make or revoking appointments to public offices such as Chief Justice, Attorney-General, Chief of Defence Force and Commissioner of Police amongst others.[2][3]

The current system of conducting elections for the presidency began with the 1993 presidential election and the swearing-in of Ong Teng Cheong. Prior to that, the president was appointed by Parliament.[4]

There are strict requirements for prospective presidential candidates, and whether a candidate meets the qualifications or not is decided by the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC), who are given the task of issuing a certificate of eligibility (COE) to prospective candidates.[5]

The presidency is required by the Constitution to be non-partisan.[6] Following amendments to the Constitution of Singapore, the next presidential election will be open to candidates of any racial community. The 2017 presidential election was the first to be reserved for a particular racial community under a hiatus-triggered model,[7] and was restricted to candidates from the minority Malay community, who had not held the presidency since 1970.[8][9]

Electoral system

The president is elected by first-past-the-post voting, with the candidate receiving the most votes winning the election.[10]

Candidates

Announced

Candidates Background
Tharman Shanmugaratnam On 8 June 2023, Tharman announced his resignation scheduled for 7 July 2023 from all his positions in the government and as a member of the People's Action Party (PAP) to run for the presidency.[11] Prior to his announcement, Tharman served as Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Deputy Chairman of GIC, and Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the Economic Development Board (EDB).
George Goh Ching Wah On 12 June 2023, in a statement by his media team, Goh, the founder of Harvey Norman Ossia confirmed he was running for the office of President.[12] Goh has also served Singapore's non-resident ambassador to Morocco, and is co-founder of charity Border Mission. According to the statement, all of the companies Goh has owned have a collective market capitalisation value of S$3.15 billion.[13]
Seng Soon Kia On 13 June 2023, Seng collected an application form at the Elections Department office. Due to his collection of the application form, he was approached by media. Seng stated he was a 72 year-old, former woodwork teacher. He claims to have fulfilled the requirements in order to run as president and he claimed to have been Singapore's president from 1951 to 1952.[14]

Publicly expressed interest

Candidates Background
Lee Hsien Yang The brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Lee said during a telephone interview with Bloomberg in March 2023, "There is a view that depending on who they (referring to the People’s Action Party) float, if I were to run they would be in serious trouble and could lose. A lot of people have come to me. They really want me to run. It’s something I would consider." As of March 2023, both Lee and his wife, Lee Suet Fern are currently on a self-imposed exile in a European country after being under investigation for lying during judicial proceedings.[15][16]

Declined

Candidates Background
Halimah Yacob On 29 May 2023, the incumbent and eighth president of Singapore, Halimah, announced that she would not be seeking for a re-election after "careful consideration".[17] A former member of the People's Action Party (PAP), Halimah was Speaker of Parliament between 2013 and 2017 and Member of Parliament for Marsiling–Yew Tee GRC between 2015 and 2017, prior to her presidency.
George Yeo Former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC, ruled out a run for president or any form of elected office after his defeat in Aljunied GRC during the 2011 general election.[18][19][20]

Timeline

All the dates and time reflected in this timeline are in Local Singaporean Time (SST).

Date Event
May 2023
9 May Former Foreign Minister George Yeo declines to run for Presidency, the third time he has done so since his first declaration in May 2011 and subsequently in August 2022, reiterating that he is a "free spirit".[20]
29 May Incumbent President Halimah Yacob announces that she will not run for re-election in the 2023 presidential election.[17]
June 2023
8 June Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam puts himself forward as a candidate for the election, and announces that he will step down from all political positions on 7 July.
12 June Harvey Norman Ossia chairman George Goh declares his intention to run for the presidency.[12]
13 June Applications for Certificates of Eligibility (COE) were made available.[21] Two potential candidates, George Goh and Seng Soon Kia collect their application forms at the Elections Department.[14]

References

  1. ^ "askST: What happens next as Singapore gears up for the upcoming presidential election?".
  2. ^ Constitution, Arts. 148A and 148D.
  3. ^ Constitution, Art. 22.
  4. ^ Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Act 1991 (No. 5 of 1991), in force on 30 November 1991 except for sections 7 and 16 which came into force on 1 February 1991 and s. 3 which was not brought into force and was subsequently repealed by the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Act 1996 (No. 41 of 1996).
  5. ^ Zhu, Melissa; Baker, Jalelah Abu (31 May 2017). "Applications for Presidential Election to open Jun 1". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  6. ^ "Constitution, Art. 19(2)(f)". Art. 19(2)(f). A person shall be qualified to be elected as President if he is not a member of any political party on the date of his nomination for election;
  7. ^ "Elected Presidency: Amendments to Constitution passed in Parliament". Channel NewsAsia. 9 November 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  8. ^ Yong, Charissa (8 November 2016). "Parliament: 2017 presidential election will be reserved for Malay candidates, says PM Lee". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  9. ^ "Only one Singaporean is fit to be president". The Economist. 13 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  10. ^ Republic of Singapore: Election for President IFES
  11. ^ Correspondent, Goh Yan HanPolitical (2023-06-08). "SM Tharman to run for President, will resign from Govt and PAP on July 7". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 2023-06-08. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ a b "Harvey Norman Ossia's founder George Goh to run for President in Singapore". Channel NewsAsia. 2023-06-12. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
  13. ^ "Press Statement" (PDF). TODAY. From The Desk of George Goh Ching Wah. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  14. ^ a b "Presidential Election 2023: Two hopefuls turn up on the day applications open". The Straits Times. 13 June 2023. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  15. ^ "Lee Hsien Yang unlikely to meet criteria to run for elected presidency given court finding of lying under oath: Lawyers". Channel News Asia. 4 March 2023. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  16. ^ "Lee Hsien Yang weighing presidential bid, lawyers say court findings affect his eligibility". Straits Times. Archived from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  17. ^ a b "'I have decided not to stand for re-election': President Halimah Yacob". Today Online. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  18. ^ Huang, Yupei; Xu Xiangyu (10 May 2011). "楊榮文宣佈不再參選 '不代表將退出政壇' (Translation: George Yeo Announces He Will Not Be Running For Office, [But] Does Not Mean He's Quitting Politics)". Lianhe Wanbao (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  19. ^ Dai, Ong. (2 June 2011) "George Yeo for President?", Today Online, 2 June 2011 Archived 7 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Todayonline.com. Retrieved on 28 August 2011.
  20. ^ a b "Former minister George Yeo says he will not run in next year's presidential election". Straits Times. 11 August 2022. Archived from the original on 21 August 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  21. ^ "APPLICATION FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OPENS ON 13 JUNE 2023" (PDF). Election Department Singapore. Election Department Singapore. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
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