Singapore's Constitution, when read purposively, is clear that presidential aspirants cannot add the share equity of several companies to meet the S$500 million share equity requirement under the private sector service requirement eligibility rules, said Eugene Tan, Associate Professor of Law at the Singapore Management University.

After all, running a profitable company with S$500 million shareholder equity for at least three years is very different from running five companies with S$100 million shareholder equity each as "the skill sets, ability, experience, risk taken, and knowledge are of very different magnitude", he added.

Tan was commenting in response to the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC)'s decision to reject former Presidential hopeful George Goh's application for a certificate of eligibility on Aug. 18, 2023.

Requirement is "stringent" but necessary

In addition to what is stated in the Constitution, Tan also contended that Singapore would need to be extremely careful about aggregating several companies' shareholder equity to meet the threshold requirement because it might render the requirement meaningless.

This is because if one such permutation is allowed, then all other permutations would need to be allowed to be fair, said Tan.

If that is the case, someone who runs 500 companies with S$1 million share equity each might also be eligible to stand for the presidency.

This is also why Goh's eligibility "was always in doubt", even under the deliberative track.

As such, while the current requirement is "undoubtedly stringent", Tan said it serves to enable "only applicants with the requisite experience and ability" to qualify.

Background

On Aug. 18, the Elections Department announced that three presidential hopefuls had received their certificates of eligibility, which comprised Ng Kok Song, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and Tan Kin Lian.

Following the announcement, Goh issued a press release, sharing that he was "very disappointed" that the PEC had rejected his application for a certificate of eligibility.

He also added that his legal and financial team had submitted a "very strong case" detailing his experience and performance in managing five companies which supposedly met the shareholders' equity and profitability criteria.

However, the PEC rejected his team's argument about how his experience in these companies was equivalent to that of a Chief Executive Officer running a single company, claimed Goh.

He also said the PEC had taken a "very narrow" interpretation of the requirements without explaining the rationale behind its decision.

PEC's response

In response, the PEC issued a press release on the evening of Aug. 18, refuting Goh's claim that it had failed to provide the rationale for not granting him a certificate of eligibility.

The PEC also publicised its rejection letter to the former presidential hopeful, which underscored that the experience and ability that comes from managing multiple smaller private sector organisations is not equivalent to that coming from managing one very large private sector organisation.

However, Goh's application relied on his service at five different companies whose shareholders' equity was "significantly below S$500 million," according to the PEC.

While the businessman had asked the five companies to be regarded as a single private sector organisation, he also acknowledged that the five companies are not a "unitary company" and are "not owned by a common holding company".

As such, the PEC concluded that it was unable to grant Goh a certificate of eligibility:

"After taking into account the relevant facts and circumstances (including how the companies were owned, managed and operated), the Committee was not satisfied that the five companies constituted a single private sector organisation under Article 19(4)(b) [of the Constitution]. The Committeee therefore did not aggregate the shareholders' equity of the five companies for the purposes of your application".

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Top images via Julia Yee/Mothership & Cyril Ng