ICA investigating case of Tampines polling district with only 1 voter

Remember the polling district in Tampines Changkat SMC with only one registered voter?

The case is now being investigated by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

ICA told Mothership that individuals in Singapore should declare their address based on where they are physically residing, and it is "not operationally tenable" for it to verify every person's declared place of residence, or check with premise owners if they disallow people to reside in their commercial or industrial buildings.

"ICA is investigating the case of the solo voter and is unable to provide further details at this juncture," ICA added.

"Under the NRA, those who have failed to report a change of address or falsely declared their residential address may be fined up to S$5,000, or jailed for up to five years, or both."

Background

The odd statistic first drew readers' attention when it was mentioned in page 13 of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee's Mar. 11 report.

Despite being about 14 football fields large, the district — around Tampines Street 92, 94, 95, and 96 — doesn't appear to be much of a residential area.

A quick check by Mothership revealed that the area is where a number of upcoming BTO projects are located.

Apart from that, there's also a number of industrial buildings as well as a commercial hostel.

Mothership understands that given that there is only one voter in the district, the person would be assigned to a polling station in an adjacent polling district.

So how did this happen?

According to AsiaOne, the voter reportedly is a 53-year-old man, who gave his surname as Yeo.

The man said he is the sole proprietor of a business that is based in an industrial unit in Tampines.

While he does not live in the unit, he spends long hours at work six days out of seven.

"It was for the convenience to run this business," he explained.

Informed that he was the only listed voter in the polling district, Yeo expressed disbelief.

"Impossible. This is such a huge area with many new flats," he said.

Top image from Google Maps