The Elections Department (ELD) has announced that as of 8pm on Jul. 10, 2,565,000 voters — or 96 per cent of registered voters — have cast their votes at local polling stations in Singapore.

This turnout is higher than the turnout during the GE2015, said the ELD. 2,304,331 votes were cast at the close of poll for GE2015, which amounted to 93.56 per cent of registered voters.

In fact, according to the National Archives, this is the highest voter turnout for a general election since Singapore's independence.

Extension of polling hours

Earlier in on Jul. 10, ELD had announced the extension of polling hours from the originally-planned 8pm until 10pm.

Said the ELD:

"The decision to extend polling hours was made because there were still a small number of polling stations with long queues.

A voter will only be able to vote if he has been issued the ballot paper by close of polls.

Given the long queues at these polling stations, to ensure that all voters who had turned up would be able to cast their vote, the RO made the decision to extend polling hours to 10.00 pm."

Top photo © Lim Sin Thai for Mothership.