208 CANDIDATES VYING TO CONTEST IN SINGAPORE'S 14TH GENERAL ELECTION

SINGAPORE, April 24 (Bernama) -- The Singapore Elections Department says it has received 208 applications for political donation certificates by the end of Saturday’s 1pm deadline.

In other words, it means at least 208 are applying to contest in this upcoming General Election (GE).

The department also received 32 applications for Indian and other
minority certificates, and 39 for Malay community certificates, reported Channel NewsAsia.

Over the last few days, potential election candidates have been filing in and out of the Elections Department in an orderly fashion, careful to make sure that the relevant papers are accurately submitted.

On April 19, President SR Nathan dissolved Parliament on the advice
of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, paving the way for the GE 2011.

This comes six weeks after the release of the Electoral Boundaries report.

According to the Writ of Election for Singapore's next GE issued by the Prime Minister's Office, nomination day is fixed for April 27 and polling for May 7.

The minimum period between Nomination Day and Polling Day has been
extended from nine to 10 days to compensate for the extra cooling-off day, which was introduced last April to allow voters time to reflect on issues during the election before going to the polls.

In this GE, there will be 12 single member constituencies (SMCs), 2
four-member GRCs (group representation constituencies), 11 five-member GRCs and 2 six-member GRCs with the recent electoral boundary changes.

Parliament will have a total of 87 members. About 2.35 million Singaporeans are eligible to vote in the GE.