Key submissions by those who spoke

Mr S Dhanabalan, former Cabinet minister

- Limit corporate officer’s eligibility to that of chief executive officer, who has had responsibility and experience of day-to-day management of the corporation

- Using paid-up capital as only measure is insufficient; other measurements proposed, such as annual revenue and number of employees

- Apply original principles that shaped Group Representation Constituency (GRC) concept to Presidential Election system; have election in two cycles of six-year terms and then eight-year term. Eight-year term must be contested by teams of two candidates, with one member from minority community. Winning pair take turns being President for four years, the other pair can be Vice-President with same powers

Adjunct Professor Kevin Tan

Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

- Unwise to further tighten eligibility criteria for presidential candidate, will reduce pool; tighten qualifying criteria for members of Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA) instead

- Revert to system of nomination by Parliament, to ensure balance between competence and ethnic representation

- If Presidential Election system stays, elected President must secure sufficient votes as sure mandate, or go through second round of voting

- With system of Elected President, candidates have to campaign in groups of three with inclusion of minority members, and members take on President’s role on rotating basis

Dr Loo Choon Yong, chairman and co-founder of Raffles Medical Group

Mr Loo Choon Hiaw, lawyer

- Minimum threshold for qualifying criteria set at S$500 million shareholder funds or net tangible assets

- If majority or minority racial groups elected for two consecutive terms as President, no candidate from that group can qualify as candidate in next election

- One of the two members nominated by both Elected President and Prime Minister to Council of Presidential Advisers must be a minority

- Revert to system of President chosen by Parliament as symbolic head of state; appoint eight-member Council for Review to oversee reserves and public service appointments

Grace Teo, Carina Kam, Amelia Chew and Russell Wong

Second-year students from Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

- Broaden eligibility criteria to individuals who held key management positions, eg. directors, chief financial officers, to widen candidate pool

- Decision-making process of Presidential Election committee to be more transparent, disclose reasons for denying certificate of eligibility, and allow for internal appeal

- Add new article to Constitution to recognise Elected President’s role as unifying symbol of nation, include representation of multi-racial interests as qualifying criterion

- Allow President to veto nominations to CPA since it ought to be accountable only to President and independent from Government