SINGAPORE — Former Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob submitted her application papers for the upcoming Presidential Election on Wednesday (Aug 30) morning — the last of three presidential hopefuls to do so.

Speaking to reporters outside the Elections Department (ELD) building at Prinsep Link, the 62-year-old, who arrived at 10.40am, accompanied by five members of her campaign team, said she hopes to “receive a favourable response”.

Last week, the other two potential contenders for the reserved election submitted their papers.

Mr Mohamed Salleh Marican, 67, chief executive of Second Chance Properties was the first to do so on Aug 23, whereas Mr Farid Khan Kaim Khan, 62, chairman of marine services provider Bourbon Offshore Asia Pacific, followed suit on the next day.

Next month’s Presidential Election has been reserved for the Malay community. All three hopefuls have to be certified eligible by the Presidential Elections Committee before they can be officially declared as candidates. They also have to submit a community declaration to the Community Committee to certify their ethnic group.

Voters will head to the polls on Sept 23 should there be more than one eligible candidate on Nomination Day, which falls on Sept 13. Over 2.5 million voters are eligible to vote in next month's Presidential Elections.

Saying that she will reveal details of her campaign plan and strategies later, Mdm Halimah on Wednesday addressed online criticism that her campaign slogan – Do Good Do Together – is ungrammatical.

“You see slogans will have to be very punchy – cannot be too long, too wordy. It has to be something which people remember. I do know that there are also people who support it, (who) find it very good, very impactful,” said the former Member of Parliament for Marsiling-Yew Tew Group Representation Constituency (GRC), who unveiled her slogan officially on Tuesday.

“The idea of doing good is something that is so expansive, (and) covers many things – wanting to see Singapore doing better, Singaporeans doing better, getting the collective support of everyone to stay united so that we can progress together.

“I think it's catchy, it's easy to understand, easy for everyone to relate. A slogan must be something which everyone at every level of society can relate to, can feel that it involves them and they want to be involved,” she added.

Asked if it was inspired by her former GRC’s tagline of “do good, do well, do together”, Mdm Halimah said: “Well when we think of slogans, we think of words that resonate with people, and I think ‘good’ and ‘together’ are key words which really resonates with everybody at whatever level, whatever background.”

Ultimately, she added that her call is “really both a goal and a call for Singaporeans to come together to do good collectively so that we can bring Singapore to greater heights”.