The Elections Department earlier today (Sep. 11) announced in a press release that the Presidential Elections Committee decided to award the Certificate of Eligibility to only one candidate.

You can see a screenshot of the ELD's press release below:

Mothership.sg received confirmation from representatives for both Farid Khan and Salleh Marican that they were disqualified because they both did not meet the minimum $500 million company shareholder equity threshold, one of the requisite criteria for private sector candidates.

As the only applicant to receive a certificate of eligibility, former Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob will therefore be declared the only nominee, and thus Singapore's next president-elect on Wednesday, when she will submit her papers for nomination as a presidential candidate.

When contacted, Salleh Marican's team gave the following statement to us:

"I am disappointed that the committee did not see it fit to give me the go-ahead to take part in the Presidential Election. But this doesn’t mean my work to help my fellow Singaporeans comes to an end. My team and I will regroup to see how the effort to help our disadvantaged sisters and brothers can go forward.

To my family, members of my campaign team and supporters, friends, business associates and well wishers who had stood by me in my decision to become the President of Singapore I say: Thank you for your unwavering support and I will continue to serve Singapore in other ways."

Ferus Bakar, a member of Salleh Marican's team, confirmed that the reason for his ineligibility was due to insufficient shareholder equity of his company, by the standards of the increased threshold.

Salleh also made the following remarks in an interview:

"It was in a way not really unexpected. All these weeks I was feeling confident, except on Friday when they had this IPS Forum, and what was said during the Forum, clearly gave hints that there is likely to be a walkover."

Perhaps Salleh was referring to the remarks made by Ministers K. Shanmugam and Chan Chun Sing at the IPS Forum on the Reserved Presidency last Friday, Sep. 8.

During the forum, Shanmugam had mentioned in response to a question from the audience on the mandate of an elected President that a candidate who stood unopposed would not mean that a candidate lacked a mandate, using the example of the founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who experienced walkover GRC victories.

Chan, in the same forum, said that he understood Singaporeans' aspirations to see a contest, but he didn’t think Singaporeans would like to see different rules for different races.

Farid Khan's team also provided the following statement in the wake of the PEC's decision, first quoting the response he received from the PEC:

"Both the Presidential Election Committee (PEC) and the Community Committee have reviewed Mr Farid Khan's submission. Unfortunately, we regret to inform that the committees have decided that he is unable to contest in the upcoming Reserved Election.

I accept the decisions made by the PEC and the Community Committee.

I wish to thank Singaporeans, my family and friends for their overwhelming support since I first announced my decision to contest in the upcoming election. Unfortunately, it is not meant to be. Nevertheless, it has been a meaningful journey and a wonderful experience. Although I am disappointed by the Committees' decision, it will not stop me from continuing to serve the people. As before, I will continue to serve to the best of my abilities."

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Related story:

Only one certificate of eligibility given out for Presidential election, and it was to Halimah

Top image from file.