Singapore election: Polls close, vote counting begins with all eyes on hot seats and mandate for PAP

Polls closed at 10pm after the highest ever general election voter turnout since independence

Sample counts providing an early indication of results are expected soon and the consensus among analysts is that the ruling People’s Action Party will comfortably return to power

5-MIN READ5-MIN

Voters queue to cast their ballots at a polling station in Singapore on July 10, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:00am, 10 Jul 2020Updated: 11:28pm, 10 Jul 2020

Voting has ended in Singapore’s general election and ballot-counting will continue till the early hours of Saturday after a unprecedented poll held amid the Covid-19 pandemic, that saw mask-wearing citizens queuing up to vote in observance of strict safety measures.

While the polls opened at 8am and were supposed to close at 8pm, the Elections Department announced a two-hour extension to 10pm after long queues at several polling stations.

Before polls closed, the department issued a statement saying 96 per cent of registered voters, or 2,565,000 citizens, had cast their votes at local polling stations in Singapore as of 8pm. The figure marks the highest voter turnout for a general election since the country became independent in 1965.

A long queue of voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Singapore on July 10, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE

Voting is compulsory, and total turnout stood at over 93 per cent in the past two general elections.

Friday’s polling deadline extension however, elicited complaints from at least three of the 10 opposition parties contesting against the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) described the decision by Returning Officer Tan Meng Dui as “highly irregular”, and said some of its polling agents needed to leave as they understood polling would end at 8pm.