ELD Apologises Again for Polling Day ‘Mess’; Reiterated That Voters’ Safety Weren’t Compromised

By
Shawn Ambrose
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Voting in Singapore is usually a quick and smooth process, like ordering a McDonald’s burger at a drive-through at 3am.

But this year, thanks to the coronavirus and poor planning, it was a long and messy process, like ordering a burger at McDonald’s on the first day it reopens after a lengthy closure.

Image: Giphy

Due to the addition of precautionary measures, voting hours had to be extended, as many voters had yet to cast their ballots when the polls were supposed to close.

The Elections Department (ELD) apologised to voters on Polling Day for the long queues, adding that they eventually did away with the wearing of disposable gloves to accelerate the process.

Three days later, ELD apologised once more.

ELD Apologises Again for Polling Day ‘Mess’; Reiterated That Voters’ Safety Weren’t Compromised

ELD apologised again on Monday (13 July), especially to senior citizens, for the long queues and slow voting process, adding that it will conduct a thorough review of what went wrong.

The Head of ELD Koh Siong Ling was responding to a letter by a voter who said that he and his 89-year-old grandmother had waited in line for one hour to vote, whereas it only took around 10 minutes in the last election.

ELD conceded that the safety measures they had put in place had “reduced the efficiency voters were used to in previous elections”.

As you know, voting was a little different this year. Before they could vote, Singaporeans had to:

1. Take their temperature

2. Sanitise their hands

3. Wear disposable gloves

Image: gov.sg

These measures were supposed to prevent people from spreading and contracting the coronavirus.

But since these measures were slowing down the entire process, the ELD did away with the disposable glove requirement.

Koh maintains that ELD had made adjustments to its processes “without compromising voter safety”, adding that voters still “sanitised their hands a few times.”

Despite that, there were still long queues at some polling stations.

“We will also study why this is the case, and draw lessons for all polling stations in future,” he said.

Apologised to Voters on Stay-Home Notice

The ELD also said it apologised to 13 voters on stay-home notice staying in hotels who didn’t get to vote.

Voters on stay-home notice were actually allowed to cast their ballots this election; mobile polling teams went door-to-door to deliver the ballot paper to these electors.

However, the ELD inadvertently omitted their names from the list submitted by Marina Bay Sands to ELD on Polling Day.

All 13 voters will have their names restored to the registers of electors without penalty, ELD said.

Did the Long Wait Swing Some Votes?

Interestingly, some political analysts believe that the long queues and poor execution of the voting process swung some votes away from the People’s Action Party (PAP).

One Sengkang GRC resident actually admitted to this, saying in an interview with The Straits Times that she voided her vote by marking both boxes after having queued for two hours in the sun.

“I was quite angry with how long I had to line up just to vote, so I registered my unhappiness”, she said.

This, coupled with the fact that the ruling party chose to have an election during a pandemic, may have lost them some votes.

The PAP won 61.24% of the popular vote this election, down from nearly 70% in GE2015.

I’d like to say that we won’t have to worry about a pandemic in the next election, but with some saying that vaccines won’t be enough and that people can get re-infected, who the heck knows?

Now that you’re done with GE2020, you might as well just watch our latest video whereby we simplify what TraceTogether is here:

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]