4 out of 6 people investigated for Cooling-Off Day breaches given police warning over online posts during Bukit Batok by-election

They should be more careful about going online during the Presidential Election in September.

Martino Tan | February 16, 2017, 10:59 PM

Quite a number of people were investigated for breaking Cooling-Off Day rules during the May 2016 Bukit Batok by-election.

They include:

1. Kumaran Pillai, Ravi Philemon, and Alfred Dodwell, who are involved in The Independent Singapore website;

2. Jason Chua Chin Seng, who runs the Fabrications About The PAP Facebook page;

3. Teo Soh Lung, GE 2011 candidate from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) for Yuhua Single Member Constituency (SMC);

4. Blogger Roy Ngerng, GE 2015 candidate from the Reform Party (RP) for Ang Mo Kio Group Group Representation Constituency (GRC)

The first four mentioned were given "stern warnings" by the police today for breaching election advertising rules on Cooling-Off Day and Polling Day under the Parliamentary Elections Act.

What the first four have in common is that they run popular online and social media platforms. While Pillai, Philemon and Dodwell manage an online media platform, Chua is only running a Facebook page.

On the other hand, Teo and Ngerng do not manage online media platforms, although they have influential Facebook pages with a large following.

Examples of posts

Here are some examples of what they did:

By The Independent Singapore:

On May 6, at 1:41am:

Screenshot from The Independent Singapore Facebook page Screenshot from The Independent Singapore Facebook page

Same day, just after 8pm:

Screenshot from The Independent Singapore Facebook page Screenshot from The Independent Singapore Facebook page

This was what the police said today:

"Upon careful consideration of all the circumstances of the cases, including the nature of the publications, the Attorney-General’s Chambers decided to administer stern warnings to all parties".

Should any of the parties commit similar offences in subsequent elections, the stern warning that was administered can be taken into consideration in the decision to prosecute."

Word of advice to the four folks: It is best you locked up your computer, phones and stay offline during the Presidential Election just to play safe.

 

Top photo: Screenshot from The Independent Singapore

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