Presidential elections were held in Singapore on 27 August 2011. It was the fourth direct presidential election and the second to be contested by more than one candidate.
Four candidates contested the non-partisan position: Tony Tan, Tan Cheng Bock, Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian. All were independents or had resigned from any political parties they were previously members of. Each candidate was issued a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) and a community certificate, meeting the eligibility requirements to contest in the election.
Singaporeans were unusually divided in this election. Tony Tan won with 35.20% of the vote, narrowly defeating Tan Cheng Bock, who received 34.85%, by just 7,382 votes, prompting an election recount. The other candidates, Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian, received 25.04% and 4.91%, with Tan Kin Lian losing his election deposit for failing to secure over 12.5%. As no runoff elections apply for less than 50% of the vote, Tan was inaugurated as the seventh President of Singapore on 1 September 2011 with a relative majority result.
Background
The president is the head of state of Singapore. Following the Westminster system, the position is largely ceremonial, but enjoys several reserve powers including withholding presidential assent on supply bills and changing or revoking civil service appointments. The current system of holding elections for the presidency began with the 1993 election. Before then, the president was selected by Parliament.
There are strict requirements for prospective election candidates, and whether a candidate meets the qualifications or not is decided by the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC). In short, candidates must satisfy either the public sector or private sector requirements. The public sector requirement has an automatic track where the candidate has held either a designated public office or chief executive position of a key statutory board or government company. The private sector requirement also has an automatic track where the candidate has held a chairmanship or CEO position of a company with S$100 million paid-up capital. Notwithstanding the automatic tracks of the aforementioned, candidates could also be qualified on a deliberative track where their abilities and experiences have been assessed by the PEC to be equivalent to either of the public or private sector automatic track requirements.
The presidency, by the rules of the Constitution, requires a nonpartisan candidate/officeholder. However, in this election, three of the four candidates had connections to the dominant People's Action Party, and the fourth contested the recent 2011 general election under the banner of the Singapore Democratic Party.
Moreover, since the amendment of the constitution of electing president in 1991, 2011 was the first year in Singapore's history whereas both a parliamentary and presidential election would occur on the same calendar year.
On 11 March 2010, the Government tabled three bills in the parliament to amend the Constitution, the Presidential Elections Act and the Parliamentary Elections Act. A one-day "cooling-off" day was implemented, during which campaigning was forbidden, with only party political broadcasts allowed. Internet campaigning was also formally legalised as a legitimate means of political campaigning. On 26 April 2010, the amendments to the Constitution were passed by a vote of 74–1 after a three-hour debate on the bill.
Nomination Day for eligible candidates was held on 17 August 2011. Four candidates were issued certificates of eligibility by Singapore's Presidential Elections Committee, and all four were nominated on Nomination Day. At the time of the election, it was the biggest democratic exercise in Singapore, with 2,153,014 local votes and 3,375 overseas votes cast.
Endorsements
In alphabetical order:
Tan Cheng Bock
Tan Cheng Bock received a formal endorsement from the Singapore Baseball and Softball Association.
Tan Jee Say
Tan Jee Say was endorsed by Nicole Seah from the National Solidarity Party (NSP), as well as Vincent Wijeysingha, Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss, Steve Chia, and candidate-hopeful Andrew Kuan (who was not awarded a COE). He also received an endorsement from the political website Temasek Review Emeritus.
Tony Tan
As of 20 August 2011, Tony Tan was endorsed by:
- 21 unions (including the Transport and Logistics cluster, the Marine and Machinery Engineering cluster, and the Infocomm and Media cluster) which collectively represent about 112,000 workers
- Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI)
- Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SMCCI)
- Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI)
- Federation of Tan Clan Associations with 10,000 members
- Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA)
- Nine Teochew clan associations
Tan Kin Lian
Tan Kin Lian did not receive any group endorsements. He said during a walkabout in Tiong Bahru, "I met so many people here today. They tell me they want to support me, they tell me 'Mr Tan, please don't drop out, give us a chance to vote'. So I want to be endorsed by the people."
Timeline
All the dates and time reflected in this timeline are in Local Singaporean Time (SST).
Candidate participation timeline
Candidate announcement and, if applicable, withdrawal dates are as follows:
Analysis
Various analysts said that while George Yeo is still a PAP member (the Constitution prohibits the president from having party membership), his popularity seems to have survived his defeat at Aljunied GRC. Some analysts noted that should Yeo decide to run, he should be well-suited for the presidency, noting that he has served in various cabinet positions. Others were critical of the speed with which Yeo announced his intention not to contest in future his lost parliamentary seat, his comments about being "temperamentally" unsuited to the presidency, and the likely difficulty of him claiming any independence from the PAP in a contested election.
After Yeo declined to run for the presidency, political analysts said Tony Tan would be one of the more suitable candidates, even though Tan himself had yet to declare his candidacy at that time.
Reaction
Since late June, Minister for Law K. Shanmugam expressed concerns that voters and prospective candidates were confusing or misinterpreting the president's powers, and clarified what the office could and could not do. In August, he said at a forum, "The president can speak on issues only as authorised by the Cabinet” and that “[he] must follow the advice of the Cabinet in the discharge of his duties." He also said, "If [the president] is someone who commands little or no respect of the prime minister, then of course influence will be limited." The then six presidential hopefuls commented on his remarks on the presidential role.
In an e-mail to reporters from the Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao in early July, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong praised Tony Tan's performance during his time in Cabinet, and stopping short of an outright endorsement, said that should Tony Tan be elected president, he would be able to unite Singaporeans, and bring honour to the country.
In early August, Minister of National Development Khaw Boon Wan echoed Lee Hsien Loong's sentiments on Tony Tan at a National Day banquet in Sembawang, stating that he will be an excellent president, and make the nation proud. In what could be construed as an endorsement, Khaw publicly wished Tony Tan will win the presidency.
In a break with the past, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) President and Member of Parliament Lim Swee Say said the NTUC will not force all its constituent trades union to endorse one candidate, and that the constituent trades union may endorse any candidate as they desire.
Nomination Day and Campaigning
The earliest instance of its widespread campaigning first surfaced on 17 June when Tan Cheng Bock visited across various bazaars to engage with voters, according to Shin Min Daily News., then with young voters at a local youth park on 1 August, and across at least 10 neighbourhoods as of 7 August. Elsewhere, other candidates had also engaged through voters across Singapore, including Tan Kin Lian, who reportedly travelled to Batam to meet with Singaporeans.
On 8 July, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong issued a statement on presidential campaigns. Campaigning will mostly be television-based due to its reach, and each candidate had to participate in two presidential candidate broadcasts (PCB), both being 10-minute blocks of free airtime which aired on 18 and 26 August. Moreover, Mediacorp would produce a series of programme on the candidates on 20 August, and its televised "Meet the Candidates" forum on the 23rd.
Under the constitution, each presidential candidate's spending limit is S$0.30 per voter or S$600,000, whichever is greater. The penalty for overspending is a S$2,000 fine and a three-year disqualification for running in elections. The amount was revealed to be S$682,431; Cheng Bock spent the most at $585,045, followed by Tony's $503,070, Jee Say's $162,337, and Kin Lian's $70,912.
The deadline for the applications for Certificate of Eligibility happened on 6 August, and four candidates had been granted those certificates on 11 August. They were then successfully nominated on 17 August and unveiled their respective slogans and symbols were revealed, as follows:
With four candidates contesting this Presidential election, this marked the first instance for a four-way contest in any kind of Singapore elections in 14 years since the 1997 election.
Voting
The Writ of Election was issued on 3 August, adjourning the polling day to be on 27 August. Not counting by-elections, this was the second national election to occur within the same calendar year and had the narrowest gap in-between the last national election, with the parliamentary election occurred three months prior.
Elections Department announced some new implementations for this election, where voters could print out their polling cards from their website if they do not receive them in the mail. Nomination Day also added a recommendation to provide a recent passport photo with a size of no more than 2 MB and 400 x 514 pixels, which they will be printed onto the ballot papers for better identification.
In the preceding general election, about 290,500 voters (out of 2,350,873) have their names expunged from the voting list due to abstention, where voting is mandatory under the constitution. At the time of the announcement, its electorate has been lowered by 76,100 voters down to 2,274,773, and that around 71,000 voters had since reinstated from the list before the Writ of Election was issued, as restoration of names from the voters list are suspended upon the issuance of the writ.
Results
At about 10.30 pm, around two and a half hours after polls closed, Tan Kin Lian conceded, and reiterating that he was disappointed about the results after visiting various counting stations and added he might forfeit his S$48,000 election deposit but expressed that he gained the experience of its contest and believed he could do even better. He hinted that the election "will be a tough fight between the top two candidates", but declined naming who were the top two.
At 1.19 am on 28 August, ELD announced on a statement that they had begun an election recount as the Returning Officer Yam Ah Mee conclude that the top two candidates, Tony Tan and Tan Cheng Bock, had a margin of less than 2% during their initial counting.
The recount went for around three hours before results were declared at about 4.23 am SST, where Tony Tan was declared president-elect with 35.19% of the votes, leading by a 0.34% margin ahead of Tan Cheng Bock, or 7,269 votes. Tan Kin Lian, who polled under 5% of the 2,115,188 valid votes cast, had his election deposit of S$48,000 forfeited.
Including overseas votes that were collected on 31 August, the final vote tally were as follows:
Post-election events
Reactions of candidates
Subsequently, Tony Tan made his thank you speech at Toa Payoh Stadium, and pledged to work for all Singaporeans. He also thanked the other three candidates who "have campaigned with vigour, giving Singaporeans a choice". At a subsequent press conference that afternoon, Tony Tan emphasised that the president works for all Singaporeans and he will not be an "ivory tower President", just as President S.R. Nathan was not. When asked his thoughts about the tight race and his winning margin of just 0.34 percentage points over his closest rival Tan Cheng Bock, Tony Tan said his results were "decisive" in Singapore's first past-the-post system.