Is voting in Singapore during the covid epidemic compulsory?

Report by : Gan Yung Chyan

                 / KUCINTA SETIA

Image courtesy : Cleo

Calls have been made to the Elections Department of Singapore on whether the 10 July 2020 election is compulsory and if there is any online voting due to the covid epidemic situation in Singapore.

The Elections Department hotline staff replied that there is no online voting. If voters are sick, have cough, runny nose, fever, muscle ache, muscle pain or any symptom of any human coronavirus disease or who are injured, they do not need to force themselves to queue up and vote. Remain at home and rest. Health is far more important than voting.

Voters who do not turn up to vote will not be included in the next election's voters list. If they wished to restore their names on the list, they can turn up later after the election to request for name inclusion. If their names are included later, they will be called before the election years after 2020 to vote in the election after next.

Voters who do not vote because of sickness, injury, hospitalization or who are overseas, could not return to Singapore to vote will not be penalized.

Voting is not compulsory during the 2020 election although the election campaign advertisements describe it is safe and secret.

The Elections Department has been informed that though Singapore base the choice to hold the election during the pandemic is because of the South Korea election success, it is worth to note that in order to hold the election South Korea has flattened the epidemic curve in April and takes three days to complete the national election as safe distancing and other anti-epidemic measures are in place to ensure that voting is compulsory, safe and secret. 

According to the South Korean report by Do Kyung Ryuk et al and published on Wilson Center, covid patients recuperating in South Korean homes are allowed to vote on 10, 11 April 2020 in South Korea while the rest of the population vote on the official election day 15 April 2020. These measures aim to ensure that covid patients did not end up among the non-infected population during the election.

However despite South Korea's measures, as humans err, there are reports of a South Korean infected person early voting in Busan who was later tested positive. The South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Korea Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the National Election Commission tracked his contacts for more than two weeks and showed that one person tested positive out of the 1,100 people Patient 128 came into contact with, but not from Election Day.  

The Elections Department of Singapore urge healthy voters to check the number of voters in the polling stations online (at voteQ.gowhere.gov.sg) before proceeding by public transport or walk to vote. At any time between 8 am and 8 pm, there can only be less than ten voters one metre apart in a queue. Senior citizens are given priority to vote in the 10 July 2020 election.

Let's pray for a miracle for the Singapore 2020 election to be completed within one day given the stringent anti-coronavirus measures in place.

Ref :

Do Kyung Ryuk et al, Wilson Center, Elections During A Pandemic: South Korea Shows How to Safely Hold a National Election During The COVID-19 Crisis, Wilson Center, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/elections-during-pandemic-south-korea-shows-how-safely-hold-national-election-during