The integrity of the election process took centrestage during a two-hour forum this afternoon, organised by the People's Association Youth Movement.
The 200 youths who attended the forum traded views with a notable panel, among whom was Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean.
Joanne Chan was among those present and has the highlights from the discussion.
It was a no-holds barred session, and the panel of 4 speakers weighed in on various issues, answering questions about the election procedures.
A major part of the discussion was used to clarify concerns over the fairness of the voting process.
Some participants questioned the ability of civil servants to carry out their electoral duties in a non-partisan manner.
"Understand that the vote counters are the civil servants. So what's the process to appoint vote counters? So (what are) the checks done to ensure that they are politically neutral?"
The panel was quick to point out the integrity of the voting procedures.
Deputy Principal Senior State Counsel from the Attorney-General's
Chambers, Owi Beng Ki, stated that civil servants serve the President.
"Civil servants under the constitution hold their allegiance to the President. The symbolism that is attached to that is that we actually serve at the pleasure of a politically neutral institution. It is one of the values of the civil service that we are politically impartial. "
Deputy Prime Minister Teo noted that the process itself is transparent, and available to scrutiny from all parties.
"It's a process which is watched with eagle eyes by the candidates and by persons whom the candidates themselves appoint as counting agents. They're present in the counting centres, and they watch with eagle eyes, everything that goes on in the counting centres."
Another issue that drew much debate was the Prime Minister's right to redraw constituency boundaries.
Mr Teo said it was necessary to change boundary configurations from time to time to reflect population movement.
"The new family formation is something like 20,000 families a year. And so these tend to move, and other people also move from one constituency to another. And in Singapore they tend to be quite clustered. So from time to time, there will be a necessity to change the boundary configurations."
Other questions from the participants ranged from why online voting isn't allowed, to where overseas voting is conducted.
An interesting fact was also unearthed; in the event a contested ward ends in a draw, the outcome of the vote comes down to drawing lots, or flipping a coin.
--938Live