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Application for the Certificate of Eligibility and submission of community declarations for the 2023 Presidential Election will open on Tuesday (Jun. 13), the Elections Department (ELD) said.

This year's Presidential Election will be an open election.

Prospective candidates who wish to stand for the election must submit their application no later than the fifth day after the Writ of Election is issued.

Late applications will not be accepted, said the ELD in a press release.

A person is qualified to be a candidate for the Presidential Election if he/she:

• Is a citizen of Singapore.
• Is 45 years old and above on nomination day.
• Is registered as an elector in a current registers of electors.
• Is a resident in Singapore on nomination day and has been so for a total period not less than 10 years.
• Is not subject to any of the disqualifications specified in Article 45 of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore.
• Is not a member of any political party on the date of his/her nomination for election.
• Satisfies the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) that he/she has, at the date of the writ of election, met either the public sector or private sector service requirement and the period(s) of service that he/she relies on falls partly or wholly within the 20 years that immediately precede the date of the writ of election.

Certificate of Eligibility

Prospective candidates must submit an application to the PEC for a Certificate of Eligibility.

The Certificate of Eligibility will be issued to the applicant if the PEC is satisfied that:

• The applicant is a person of integrity, good character, and reputation;
• And the applicant meets the relevant public sector or private sector service requirements.

The PEC is chaired by Lee Tzu Yang, chairman of the Public Service Commission.

Those who wish to apply for the certificate of eligibility can use the digital services for candidates on ELD's website to prepare the application form.

The application form must then be printed out and submitted to ELD together with all the supporting documents within the stipulated deadline.

Community declaration

In an open election, a community declaration is submitted by a prospective candidate for the purpose of ascertaining when the next reserved election will be held.

If no one from a particular community is elected as president for the past five terms, the next election shall be reserved for that community.

Prospective candidates may submit a community declaration to the Community Committee (CC) for:

• The Chinese community or,
• The Malay community or,
• The Indian or Other Minority communities.

Candidates who do not consider themselves a member of any community may also state so in their community declaration.

Prospective candidates can head over to ELD's website to submit their community declaration early.

The CC can either accept the community declaration and issue and issue him/her a notice of acceptance or invite him/her to submit another community declaration for one of the communities.

The CC is chaired by Edward D'Silva, Chairman of the Public Hygiene Council and member of the Public Service Commission.

A Community Certificate will then be issued to the candidate no later than the eve of nomination day. The nomination day will be held at least 10 days from the issuance of the writ of election.

When will the Presidential Election be held?

Under the law, if the office of the president becomes vacant before the current term expires, a Presidential Election must be held within six months.

Otherwise, the election must be held not earlier than three months before the current term expires.

If a new president is not elected by the time the incumbent president's term expires, an acting president will take over until a new president is elected and assumes office.

The acting president shall be the chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers or, if he/she is unavailable, the Speaker of Parliament.

President Halimah Yacob's current term will conclude on Sep. 13, 2023. This means that the upcoming Presidential Election can be held any time from Jun. 13, 2023, but it need not be held by Sep. 13, 2023.

In response to media queries, ELD said:

"In 2017, Minister Chan Chun Sing said that the period during which the acting President shall exercise the functions of the office of President should not exceed one month.

In view of the above, the upcoming Presidential Election may be held at any time from Jun. 13, 2023, and if it has not been held by the expiration of the term of the incumbent president, it should be held shortly thereafter.

We are unable to comment further on the timing of the upcoming Presidential election, as this is a matter for the Prime Minister to decide."

Will there be a by-election in Jurong?

On Jun. 8, Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced that he will resign from the People's Action Party (PAP) and run for the 2023 Presidential Election.

This means that Tharman will also be resigning as Member of Parliament (MP) of Jurong GRC.

His resignation from Jurong GRC, however, does not legally trigger a by-election.

Under Section 24(2a) of Parliamentary Elections Act 1954, it states that a by-election is not required to fill a vacancy in a GRC unless all the Members for that constituency have vacated their seats in Parliament.

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