Six Singapore presidential hopefuls submit certificate of eligibility applications to contest election: ELD
Four people have publicly declared their intention to run: Former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, businessman George Goh, former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song and former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian.
File photo of the Istana, the official residence of the President of Singapore. (Photo: CNA/Howard Law)
SINGAPORE: Six presidential hopefuls have submitted applications for a certificate of eligibility to run in the upcoming Presidential Election, which will be held on Sep 1 if more than one person qualifies for a contest.
The Elections Department (ELD) announced the figure on Thursday (Aug 17) after applications closed at 5.30pm.
ELD did not name the six people who submitted applications for a certificate of eligibility.
Four people have so far publicly declared their intention to run: Former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, businessman George Goh, former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song and former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian.
The Certificate of Eligibility is one of two documents that candidates must apply for if they wish to enter what would be Singapore's first presidential contest in 12 years.
It is given to those who meet public or private sector requirements, among other criteria.
The other document is the community declaration, which allows candidates to declare if they are from the Chinese, Malay, Indian or "Other Minority" communities.
The ELD said it received 16 community declarations at the close of applications on Thursday.
Although the community declaration is not relevant to the upcoming election, which is open to all races, it is needed to determine when the next reserved election will be held.
If no one from a particular community has been elected to the office of the President for the past five terms, the next election shall then be reserved for that community.
On Friday, applications for a political donation certificate will close, after which the Presidential Elections Committee will have to inform all presidential hopefuls of their eligibility to contest – ahead of Nomination Day on Aug 22.
The six-member Presidential Elections Committee is headed by Public Service Commission chairman Lee Tzu Yang and includes two Supreme Court judges.
Of the four presidential hopefuls that have made public their bid for the position, only Mr Tharman automatically qualifies, having fulfilled the public sector service requirement with his various ministerial appointments over almost two decades.
Mr Goh previously said he is confident of qualifying under the private sector "deliberative track", adding that he has a group of five companies with a combined shareholders’ equity of S$1.52 (US$1.1 billion) billion over three years.
Analysts have said it is unclear if a candidate can combine the average shareholder equity of several companies to meet the criterion.
Mr Ng, meanwhile, said he submitted his application for a certificate of eligibility via the public sector “deliberative track”.
“In other words, it is based on my experience and my duration of service at the GIC as the group's chief investment officer,” he told reporters on Aug 3.
Mr Tan, the former chief of NTUC Income, contested the 2011 Presidential Election but analysts have said he may not automatically qualify this time round as eligibility criteria have changed since then.
Private sector candidates must have served as the chief executive of a company with shareholders' equity of S$500 million or more for at least three years.
NTUC Income had net assets of around S$1.17 billion in 2006, the last full year that Mr Tan served as CEO. But analysts said NTUC Income is a cooperative and not a "company" within the meaning of the relevant Article in the Constitution.
The Presidential Elections Committee can still give its approval if it decides that Mr Tan has the experience and ability comparable to a chief executive of a company with shareholders' equity of S$500 million or more.
