Two new Presidential Election applicants rejected for not being Malay

SINGAPORE — Five applications in total were submitted to contest the upcoming Presidential Election, the Elections Department said, after applications closed at 5pm on Monday (Sept 4).

However, two applicants are out of the running automatically, because one declared himself to be Chinese and the other said that he does not consider himself to be a member of any official ethnic community here.

The Elections Department said that when an applicant does not consider himself to be a member of the Malay community, it would reject his community certificate form, where he is needed to declare that he is part of the community.

One of these two applicants is believed to be private-hire car driver Shirwin Eu, 34, who was spotted picking up his application forms in June.

This year’s Presidential Election, to be held on Sept 23, has been reserved for the Malay community, following changes to the Elected Presidency scheme passed by Parliament last November.

The revision allows for the election to be reserved for a particular ethnicity which has not had an elected representative for five consecutive terms.

The other three applicants, who consider themselves Malays, are former Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, 62, chairman of marine services provider Bourbon Offshore Asia Pacific Farid Khan, 62, and chief executive of Second Chance Properties Mohamed Salleh Marican, 67.

The Presidential Elections Committee and Community Committee will assess their applications, and inform them of the outcome before Nomination Day on Sept 13.

If there is only one eligible candidate, Returning Officer Ng Wai Choong will declare him or her the elected President on Nomination Day.

There will not be a poll in this case, and the candidate will start his or her term as President the next day.

However, if no one is successfully nominated, the Prime Minister will issue a fresh writ declaring an open election.