So you think only Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and businessman George Goh Ching Wah have expressed interest in running for the Presidential Election 2023.
You think wrong, because when the application for the Certificate of Eligibility opened yesterday (13 June), another person has gone forward to collect the forms.
And it’s not Shirwin Eu or Ooi Boon Ewe.
It’s a former school teacher.
A Former Secondary School Teacher Has Also Expressed Interest in Running for President
Lest you’re unaware, the applications for the Certificate of Eligibility opened yesterday.
That is the very first step of the Presidential Election 2023, because unlike the General Election, a committee needs to assess whether a candidate is eligible to run for president or not.
A person who’s eligible will be issued the Certificate of Eligibility (CoE; with a lower “o” lest you think it’s related to car ownership), and that person is then eligible to run.
The eligibility criteria are rather strict, since we’re talking about a person who’ll eventually hold the key to our reserves. Heck, even George Goh, if based just on his company Ossia International, might not be eligible. You can watch this video to understand why:
However, this year, the Elections Department Singapore (ELD) encouraged people do the paperwork online. In other words, there’s actually no need to head down to the ELD office to collect the form personally; I mean, it’s 2023. Do you even know where you can buy a pen?
On the first day when applications open, you’d expect to see Tharman Shanmugaratnam and George Goh Ching Wah, and maybe Shirwin Eu and Ooi Boon Ewe as well.
George Goh was indeed there, and even had a doorstep interview with reporters.
A man who apparently had also wanted to be president was overshadowed by George Goh.
George Goh had arrived at 10am, and The Straits Times reported that at around 2pm, a 72-year-old man, Seng Soon Kia, had also gone to the ELD office to collect his forms.
Unlike George Goh who had arrived with great fanfare, Mr Seng had allegedly paced outside the office for about 20 minutes before he went in to pick up the application forms.
The former secondary school teacher had a mask throughout, and had spoken in Mandarin.
He said that he wanted to push for a work schedule like how it was like during the COVID-19 period, when people only needed to head to the workplace a few days a week.
He had actually written down the issues that he wanted to address, but had left his notes at home, so he could only provide two more issues he wanted to addressed: the condition of public toilets and the standard of public bus services.
I’m as confused as you are, but given that a president needs to be someone who has managed a company with a shareholders’ equity of over $500 million, I’m sure that’s not a pressing issue that warrants a president’s attention.
In his interview, he also added that he was a president for a year in 1951, but said he was born in 1952. When asked he knew about the eligibility criteria, he said he read about it from the newspapers, and think he “should be eligible”.
You can watch his interview here:
@sgpowerlah Singapore president hopeful #tiktoksingapore #singapore #tiktoksg ♬ original sound – SGPowerLah
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