5 Applications Received for Singapore Presidential Election

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Bernama) -- The Elections Department of Singapore received a total of five applications by the close of application for the Certificate of Eligibility and Community Certificate today for the upcoming Presidential Election (PE2017). “Of these applicants, three persons applied for the Malay Community Certificate, one person applied for the Chinese Community Certificate, and one person declared that he does not consider himself to be a member of the Chinese community, the Malay community, or the Indian or other minority communities,” said the department on its website. “As this Presidential Election is reserved for the Malay community, the Community Committee must reject a community declaration if the declarant does not state that he considers himself to be a member of the community for which the election is reserved,” it said. Nomination day will be Sept 13 while if more than one candidate stands nominated on nomination day, Sept 23 will be declared polling day. The three potential Malay candidates who have submitted the application are former Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, 63, and two businessmen, Mohamed Salleh Marican, 67, and Farid Khan Kaim Khan, 62. As part of the process before getting nominated, the potential candidates will have to apply for the Certificate of Eligibility from the Presidential Elections Committee. At the same time, they have to submit a community declaration to the Community Committee to certify their ethnic group. If the committee does not agree, the candidate will receive a notice of rejection. -- BERNAMA