Presidential elections were held in Singapore on 1 September 2023. It was the sixth direct presidential election and the third to be contested by more than one candidate. Incumbent president Halimah Yacob, who had been elected unopposed in 2017, did not seek re-election.
Three candidates contested the non-partisan position: Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Ng Kok Song 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.
Tharman won a majority of the votes, at 70.41% of the votes and winning by a record margin. He also became the first non-Chinese candidate to be directly elected to the presidency. Ng received 15.72% of the vote, while two-time presidential candidate Tan received 13.87%, improving on his performance in the 2011 election when he had performed poorly enough to forfeit his election deposit. Tharman was inaugurated on 14 September as the ninth president of Singapore.
Background
The president of Singapore is the head of state of Singapore, is paid an annual salary of S$1.54 million, or US$1.1 million, and is subject to periodic White Paper reviews. The previous president was Halimah Yacob, who took office on 14 September 2017. She was the first female president in the country's history.
Eligibility
Candidates must satisfy either the public sector or private sector requirement. Under the public sector requirement, the candidate automatically qualifies if having held either a designated public office or the chief executive position of a key statutory board or government company. Under the private sector requirement, the candidate automatically qualifies if that person has been the chief executive of a company with S$500 million shareholders' equity and net profitability. Notwithstanding the aforementioned automatic tracks, candidates could also be qualified on a deliberative track where their abilities and experiences have been assessed by the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) to be equivalent to either the public- or private-sector automatic track requirements.
The presidency is required by the Constitution to be non-partisan. However, many former presidents, as well as former candidates, had ties with the long-ruling People's Action Party (PAP) prior to their candidacies. Tharman had served as an MP for the PAP. He was a cabinet member from 2001 to 2023, and was once seen as a potential candidate for prime minister. Tharman was also described by the Reuters news agency as the candidate closest to the country's establishment.
Ng had previous work experience with Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, the GIC, as well as the country's monetary authority. Tan had previous ties with the arm of the National Trades Union Congress that is now known as Income Insurance. Tan's candidacy also had the support of a number of opposition figures, including SDP's Tan Jee Say and Lim Tean with the Peoples Voice party as proposers, a mid-race endorsement from former presidential candidate and then PSP chairman Tan Cheng Bock (albeit in a personal capacity), as well as support from SDP's Chee Soon Juan and PPP's Goh Meng Seng.
Following amendments to the Constitution, the 2017 presidential election was the first to be reserved for a particular racial community. It was restricted to candidates from the minority Malay community, who had not held the presidency since 1970. The 2023 presidential election was open to candidates of any racial community.
Election procedures
President Halimah Yacob's term of office was scheduled to end on 13 September 2023. The presidential election had to be held within three months of that date. Any Singaporean citizen who wished to be a candidate in the election had to apply and receive a Certificate of Eligibility (COE), as well as a community certificate.
On 11 August, the writ of election was issued by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The writ specified Nomination Day to be held on 22 August 2023 at the People's Association (PA) headquarters at 9 King George's Avenue. The Returning Officer for this election was to be Tan Meng Dui, CEO of the Housing and Development Board (HDB), who is serving his second term, after the 2020 general election.
By Nomination Day, all prospective candidates had to have prepared their nomination papers, which included the COE, community certificate, and political donation certificate. The candidate also had to pay the election deposit of $40,500, which was lowered from the $43,500 required for the previous election. A candidate would lose this deposit if they did not receive 12.50% of the total votes cast. The nomination paper must be signed by one's proposer, seconder, and at least four assenters, and be handed to the Returning Officer between 11:00 to 12:00 SST (UTC+08:00) on Nomination Day. On that day, the Returning Officer announces the candidates running for the presidency. However, if only one candidate was successfully nominated, the election would be declared a walkover, and the sole nominated candidate would be the President-elect. Otherwise, Polling Day was set for 1 September.
In-person rallies were discouraged by the Elections Department, which did not designate any rally sites, as such rallies may be divisive and thus not congruent with the nature of the unifying nature of the presidential system. Candidate speeches were televised on local television channels instead, while smaller election meetings were allowed to be held, albeit indoors or otherwise under cover, for security reasons. Campaigning took place between 22 and 30 August. This was followed by a cooling-off day, on 31 August, on the eve of Polling Day, when campaigning was prohibited, to allow time for voters to reflect on events before casting their votes.
Under the first-past-the-post voting system used in Singapore, the candidate with a plurality of votes is elected as president.
Local voting
Polling Day was 1 September 2023, between 08:00 and 20:00; the winner of the election was determined by first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) and was inaugurated on 14 September. The election would potentially see 2,709,455 eligible voters cast their votes, up from 2,653,942 from the most recent general election in 2020, and 2,274,773 from the last contested presidential election in 2011; in turn, this was the first election where voters born after the 3rd millennium (born before 31 July 2002) were eligible. The Elections Department of Singapore (ELD) increased the number of polling stations from 1,097 to 1,264, reducing the number of voters allocated to each station from an average of 2,400 to 2,150, compared to the last election. The ELD had also assigned more civil servants, increasing them from 30,000 to 36,000. The 'X' pen used in the 2020 general election was also replaced with an 'X' stamp, to eliminate the confusion of voters who in the previous election had mistaken the pen for writing rather than for marking. After the polls closed, ballot boxes were sealed and transported to one of 215 counting stations.
On 24 August, ELD issued an apology to 9,822 voters from Tanjong Pagar GRC—all of whom had been assigned to vote at either St Margaret's School, Tanglin Community Centre, Farrer Park Primary School, or Delta Sports Hall—for a printing mishap whereby duplicate poll cards with different serial numbers had been mistakenly printed and sent to voters. ELD also announced that about 200 voters would be excluded from the voting list, citing scanning issues on some NRIC cards during the 2020 general election, that number later being increased to 1,093, and that 32,807 non-voters had since been reinstated onto the voter list when restorations began on 5 October 2020;
With the amendments to a bill of 8 March 2023, mobile polling stations were, for the first time, set up at 31 selected nursing homes to cater to the elderly. This was in response to an ageing electorate and travel restrictions, especially with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic occurring at the time of the 2020 elections, according to Education Minister and Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing. For this election, there would be 4,807 nursing home residents voting at these stations. This would be the only time mobile stations were set for the election, as it would be discontinued in future elections, citing mixed responses and logistics difficulties.
During the opening hours of Polling Day, there were technical issues with the e-registration system, leading to a buildup of queues at the various polling stations. The technical issues were resolved. When Parliament convened on 18 September, Chan addressed these issues to ensure a prevention of similar incidents in the future.
Under constitutionally-required compulsory voting, non-voters would be delisted from the Registers of Electors and, for the first time ever, were notified of such via mail and the SingPass app. The list of non-voters was compiled and published on 9 November, with inspections and registrations for reinstating starting the day after.
Overseas voting
In 2023, an amendment to the Presidential Elections Act and Parliamentary Elections Act was tabled in Parliament; it enabled Singaporeans living abroad to vote by post in subsequent elections, giving them an additional option. This was the first election whereby Singaporean citizens abroad could exercise their voting rights by post. Prior to 2023, they may only vote in person at one of ten designated overseas polling stations, located in various places such as Australia (Canberra), China (three polling stations: Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai), Japan (Tokyo), the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), the United Kingdom (London), and the United States (three polling stations: New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.). Expatriate citizens were also assigned a polling station in Singapore, where they could vote in person if they happened to be in Singapore on polling day.
On 23 August, ELD confirmed that 6,649 voters had been registered as overseas voters, with 3,432 doing postal voting and the rest being assigned to their respective overseas polling stations. During Polling Day, ELD advised overseas voters in Hong Kong to follow the latest safety updates about the approaching Typhoon Saola before heading outdoors to vote, but its voting station opened as usual. In Japan, another country with an overseas polling station, had reported its highest average temperature during the voting hours, amidst the ongoing heat wave.
Candidates
The Elections Department (ELD) announced that there were 6 Certificate of Eligibility applications, three of which (two Chinese and one Indian/other minority) were accepted. ELD also announced that there were 16 Community Certificate applications, six of which (five Chinese and one Indian/other minority) were accepted.
Endorsements
The candidates received the following endorsements:
Tharman Shanmugaratnam
- Kishore Mahbubani, diplomat, former Singapore Permanent Representative to the United Nations
- Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party (PAP)
- Tommy Koh, diplomat, Singapore ambassador-at-large and former Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Ng Kok Song
- George Yeo, former cabinet minister and former chief of staff of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF)
Tan Kin Lian
- Chee Soon Juan, perennial political candidate and secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)
- Goh Meng Seng, founder and secretary general of the People's Power Party (PPP)
- Iris Koh, anti-vaccination activist
- Lim Tean, founder and secretary general of the Peoples Voice (PV)
- Tan Cheng Bock, former presidential candidate in 2011 and founder of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP)
- Tan Jee Say, former presidential candidate, in 2011, and former secretary general of the now-defunct Singaporeans First (SingFirst) party
Timeline
Table of significant events
All dates are according to Singapore Standard Time (SST), which is UTC+08:00.
Candidate participation timeline
Timelines of candidate announcements and, if applicable, withdrawals are as follows:
Selection of candidates
On 18 August, the Elections Department (ELD) announced the results of the applications for the Certificate of Eligibility (COE) and Community Certificate, one day after the applications for both certificates closed, on 17 August. Three potential candidates were issued both the COE and community declaration: