Early Voting by Postal Ballot in General Elections

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Prime Minister whether the Government will consider allowing early voting by postal ballot at the general elections, given that there are more than 200,000 Singapore Citizens living abroad and most do not vote using the current overseas voting facilities.

In postal voting, there are risks with security and secrecy of the ballot as it may be lost or tampered with during postal delivery. In addition, ballot papers have to be sent to the voter at their registered overseas addresses and they have to mail back the marked ballot papers to the Returning Officer by a certain date. It is difficult to ensure that the ballots will get back on time to be counted. Late votes and missing votes will result in controversies. For now, voting by paper ballot at polling stations is still the simplest and most transparent method of voting that can ensure the integrity and secrecy of the voting process.