SGGP
On September 1, more than 2.7 million Singaporean voters went to the polls to choose the 9th president of this lion island nation.
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| Three candidates in Singapore's presidential election. Photo: Nikkei |
This year, there are three official candidates running for election, including former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam (66 years old), former Chief Investment Officer of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) Ng Kok Song (75 years old) and former Director of NTUC Income Insurance Company Tan Kin Lian (75 years old).
Among them, Mr. Tan Kin Lian is the only one returning to run for the second time, after running for president in 2011, when former Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan won a narrow victory in the race between 4 candidates.
The President of Singapore serves a six-year term and is elected directly by universal suffrage by citizens aged 21 and above. This election is the third such contest since the introduction of an elected president in 1991, with the first election held in 1993 and the second in 2011.
Besides prominent issues such as the increasingly expensive cost of living, housing and employment issues... a series of corruption scandals involving senior officials of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) that have shaken the country's usually quiet politics recently is also a major concern.
Although the president plays a largely ceremonial role in Singapore, with no formal authority to shape government policy, he or she does have the power to oversee the use of the country’s accumulated financial reserves and appoint senior officials. In this context, this year’s election could be a gauge of public sentiment, and the limits of the president’s role and guardianship will become clearer.
The incoming president is likely to have strict requirements for the official position of overseeing and vetoing certain measures and approving anti-corruption investigations. These political lines have been made clear by the candidates in the run-up to the election.
According to observers, this vote could also show the level of support for the PAP ahead of the general election in 2025.
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