SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has called for the electoral rolls to be revised, exactly one year after the Elections Department was previously directed to do so.
An update now of the Registers of Electors would allow those who
did not qualify to vote following the last revision, to have their
names added to the list of eligible voters.
This would include, for example, those who have turned 21 or have
become new citizens after the previous revision of the rolls was
completed in March last year.
The Registration Officer will have up to March 31 to complete the
latest update, according to the notice yesterday in the electronic
version of the Government Gazette.
The law requires the registers to be updated not later than three years after every General Election.
The last GE was held in May 2006, and these revisions are treated as routine.
However, this is the first time since the Presidential Election was
added to the voting landscape in 1993 that the electoral rolls will
have been revised twice before any election is called.
Prior to last year's revision, the biggest gap between the
certification of the registers and Polling Day for a GE was just over
six months. In 2006, polling day took place four months after the
revision of the Registers of Electors.
The next GE must be held by February 2012, while the election for the presidency is due next year.
- TODAY