Enforcement of Traditional Election Advertising Rule During 2025 General Election

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) how many complaints were received on the contravention of traditional elections advertising (TEA) rules during the 2025 General Elections; (b) how many investigations of such complaints were conducted by the Elections Department; (c) how many rectification notifications were issued; and (d) how many election advertising were removed, each broken down by political party.

At the 2025 General Election (GE2025), the Elections Department (ELD) received 2,561 reports on possible contraventions of traditional election advertising (TEA) regulations. All the reports were investigated, of which only 1,840 reports required further follow-up as they appeared to be in breach of the TEA regulations.

For 1,595 reports lodged with ELD between Writ Day and Cooling-off Day, notifications were sent to the relevant candidates and/or their election agents to rectify the breaches within three hours of the notification. ELD enforced against 100 reports, comprising 139 TEA, which were not rectified within the stipulated timeframe.

For the remaining 245 reports on Polling Day, no rectification notification was sent to the candidates and their election agents. ELD had assessed that it would not be appropriate to request candidates or election agents to follow up on the rectification by the start of polls, given the inclement weather that morning. Instead, ELD undertook on-site verification of the TEA, of which 36 reports, comprising 88 TEA, were found to be in breach of regulations, and proceeded to directly remove all 88 TEA.

In total, 227 TEA were removed by ELD from Writ Day to Polling Day. Table 1 below shows the breakdown by political parties.