"Longer than usual" queues were observed for the casting of ballots in the morning, the Elections Department said in a statement on July 10.

The ELD stated that it has observed such queues at some polling stations since the polls were opened at 8am.

"We are sorry for the wait"

In a separate release on July 10, ELD later apologised for the longer than usual queues.

"We are sorry for the wait and inconvenience to voters," they said.

More voters had turned up this morning than expected outside their assigned voting time-bands, ELD stated.

"This, together with measures that had been put in place to ensure safe voting, had led to long queues," they explained.

No longer need to don disposable gloves

In order to address the long wait, ELD said that they did away with the requirement to don disposable gloves because voters would already be required to sanitise their hands.

They explained that this step in particular was observed to have contributed to the longer than usual voting times.

Gloves are still available for voters who would like to use both sanitiser and gloves.

ELD also said voters are advised to keep to their assigned time-bands where possible to avoid crowding, and reminded all voters to continue to practise safe distancing.

Top photo by © Lim Sin Thai for Mothership, Kane Raynard Goh.