The various Members of Parliament (MPs) have been elected in the recent general election, and two Non-Constituency MPs have taken their seats, but the House still has some members to seat.

Members of the public can now submit their choices for the Nominated Members of Parliament (NMPs) from Oct. 26 to Nov. 23.

Who qualifies as an NMP?

The NMP scheme was introduced in 1990 to introduce alternative, non-partisan views in the House. NMPs come from a variety of backgrounds and are meant to represent different groups, such as labour, the arts, and education.

There were nine NMPs in the previous Parliament.

A prospective NMP must fulfil the following criteria, under Article 44(2) of the Constitution:

• Is a citizen of Singapore.
• Is of the age of 21 years or above on the day of nomination.
• Their name appears in a current register of electors.
• Is a resident in Singapore at the date of their nomination and has been so resident for periods amounting in the aggregate to not less than 10 years prior to that date.
• Is able, with a degree of proficiency sufficient to enable him/her to take an active part in the proceedings of Parliament, to speak and, unless incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause, to read and write at least one of the following languages, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil.
• Is not disqualified from being a Member of Parliament under Article 45 of the Constitution.

They should also be people who have rendered distinguished public service, or who have brought honour to the Republic, or who have distinguished themselves in the various sectors of society.

Select Committee and Functional groups

A special select committee of Parliament will consider the nominations of qualified candidates. The committee is chaired by Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin, and will also include:

• Chan Chun Sing
• Gan Kim Yong
• Gan Siow Huang
• Indranee Rajah
• Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman
• Leon Perera
• Vivian Balakrishnan

The Speaker has appointed coordinators of seven functional groups. These include:

• Business and Industry, Lim Ming Yan, Chair of the Singapore Business Federation
• Professions, Teo Eng Kiong, Master of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore
• Social Service Organisations, Tan Li San, CEO of the National Council of Social Service
• Media, Arts and Sports Organisations, Goh Swee Chen, Chair of the National Arts Council
• Tertiary Education Institutions, Tan Eng Chye, President of the National University of Singapore
• Civics and People Sector, Lim Hock Yu, Chief Executive Director of the People's Association
• Labour, Mary Liew, President of the National Trades Union Congress

The coordinators will seek the views of their constituent organisations and submit names to the committee for consideration.

Any organisation who wants to submit a name for consideration can send them to the coordinators. The coordinators can be contacted at the addresses listed in this link.

How to nominate someone

But the coordinators don't hold a monopoly on nominations. According to the Office of the Clerk of Parliament:

"The invitation for submission of names to the Special Select Committee is open to the general public. A person not selected by a Functional Group may be nominated by another proposer. The Special Select Committee will consider all applications."

Submission of names must be made using the prescribed forms that are available for download from the Parliament website at www.parliament.gov.sg.

The required forms and documents are to be submitted online via FormSG (https://go.gov.sg/nmp2020). The materials for submission should be in PDF format. The total size of the materials should not exceed 7MB.

Alternatively, one may submit the completed forms and supporting documents at the Office of the Clerk of Parliament located at Parliament House, 1 Parliament Place, Singapore 178880.

The completed forms and supporting documents must be submitted online via FormSG, or received by the Office of the Clerk of Parliament, by November 23, at 4:30 pm.

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