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Singapore's Elections Department (ELD) is exploring special voting arrangements for residents at nursing homes to cast their votes without having to travel to polling stations, Minister-in-charge of Public Service Chan Chun Sing said in Parliament on Mar. 3.

Chan was responding to a parliamentary question filed by MP for Radin Mas SMC, Melvin Yong, who asked if a similar voting arrangement made for those in Stay-Home Notices could be introduced for other groups of voters in future elections.

Yong also asked if the government would consider mail-in voting for Singaporeans overseas.

Special voting arrangements

Chan noted that the electorate is ageing rapidly.

He said that during the 2020 General Election, 21 per cent of registered voters were aged 65 years old and above.

This is an increase from 14 per cent in GE 2011.

ELD had made a special arrangement at GE 2020 to allow voters serving SHN at designated hotels to cast their votes.

Chan said the ELD is looking at piloting this arrangement for voters residing at some nursing homes.

"With this in place, there will no longer be a need for nursing homes to bring their elderly voters staying with them to the polling stations to vote," he said.

Overseas Singaporeans

As for overseas voters, Chan said that during the previous election, 6,500 overseas citizens registered to vote in GE 2020, from just 3,500 in GE 2011.

"We recognise that many overseas Singaporeans remain engaged with Singapore and are keen to exercise their vote,"  he said.

ELD has established overseas polling stations for them to cast their votes, Chan said.

He said that voting by paper ballot at polling stations "remains the most transparent and secure method of voting that best ensures the integrity of the voting process and secrecy of votes".

However, he highlighted that the ELD recognised that it may not be possible for some overseas Singaporeans to travel to the polling stations to vote.

As such, ELD is studying if Singapore can introduce postal voting and allow overseas Singaporeans to mail in their votes.

Chan said that any new voting arrangements will need to "provide balance between greater voting accessibility and convenience for voters with ensuring the integrity of the voting process and secrecy of the votes".

He said ELD expects to engage, sometime in the middle of this year, members of the public, as well as key stakeholders, including political parties, nursing homes, and overseas Singaporeans, on the possibility of piloting these initiatives.

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