President Tharman Shanmugaratnam spent the most money among the three presidential election candidates during their nine-day campaign in 2023.

Tharman's spending

Tharman, who eventually won the election on Sep. 1 with 70.4 per cent of the vote, spent S$738,717.

Almost two-thirds of his expenses, some S$481,226, went to non-online election advertising, which includes posters, fliers and banners, while S$141,865 went to online election advertising.

The bulk of Tharman’s advertising costs -- S$284,820.68 -- came from the brochures that were printed and posted to households.

Some S$150,120 was spent on election posters and banners.

A total of S$300 was used for the removal of contravening banners, flags or posters.

Tharman’s campaign received S$800,000 in donations.

A sum of $200,000 was given by Koh Poh Tiong, who according to Straits Times is a former National Kidney Foundation chairman.

Another S$200,000 was from Wong Ngit Liong, who according to Straits Times is the executive chairman of the Venture Group of companies.

Tharman’s campaign spokesperson told the media that unused donations will be returned to the giver in proportion to their donations.

Spending by the other two candidates

Ng Kok Song

Former GIC investment chief Ng Kok Song spent S$312,131 in total.

His campaign was focused on online advertising and social media reach

Out of the total, he spent S$280,800 on online advertising and S$1,059 on non-online ads.

All S$280,800 that Ng spent on online advertising was paid to Gushcloud, a marketing, entertainment and talent agency.

Gushcloud provided website design and development, as well as copywriting and video production services.

Ng's spending also went to monitoring social media.

Tan Kin Lian

Former NTUC Income chief Tan Kin Lian, spent S$71,366 in total -- S$69,478 went to non-online ads and S$20 was used for online ads.

The printing of 5,000 of Tan's posters, by a Malaysian supplier, was S$29,912.

Tan received over 120 PayNow transactions ranging from S$1 to S$9,800 as donations.

Bollywood Veggies founder Ivy Singh (according to the Straits Times) contributed the largest overall donation of S$9,990.

Candidates were to stick to an election expenses budget of S$812,822.10 each.

In total, all the three candidates spent more than S$1.1 million.

Details publicly available

These details were made available on Oct. 20 in the candidates’ elections returns.

The documents are online and can be looked up for free for the first time for this election at the Election Department’s website.

The returns will be available for inspection for six months until April 19, 2024.

Top photo from Mothership.