Chan Chun Sing asks WP to decide if it wants to take up NCMP seats

SINGAPORE — Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing called on the Workers’ Party (WP) to choose between having electoral candidates declare that they will not take up a seat under the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) scheme even if it is offered to them, or impose a party rule that all members will not do so.

The retort came after Mr Png Eng Huat, WP’s Member of Parliament (MP) for Hougang, restated the opposition party’s objection to the scheme.

The topic — which Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin called “not relevant” — was raised on Monday (Oct 1) during the debate on a bill to amend the Parliamentary Elections Act, which sought to propose changes to improve electoral procedures.

“The WP can take its pick on what it wants to do. But it would be rather disingenuous to say that (it opposes) the NCMP scheme, and at the same time, take up the NCMP seat,” Mr Chan said in response to Mr Png’s statement that having more such members in the House admitted through this scheme “is not the way forward to make our political system more robust”.

Introduced in 1984, the NCMP scheme affords seats in Parliament to losing opposition candidates with the highest percentage of votes during a General Election, if the number of opposition candidates elected as MPs falls short of a minimum of nine.

Up to nine NCMPs may be appointed in each Parliament. The WP has three NCMPs in the House at the moment: Associate Professor Daniel Goh, Mr Dennis Tan and Mr Leon Perera.

As part of changes to the law, up to 12 NCMPs may be appointed, to have more opposition voices in Parliament.

RE-CASTING VOTES

On other proposed changes to the Act, several of the six MPs who spoke on Monday questioned the need for voters to cast their ballots again at a polling station, should a sealed ballot box be lost or destroyed.

Under the law, polls will be conducted afresh if the votes lost or destroyed affect the results for the electoral division.

Nominated MP Walter Theseira said that a new poll costs not only time and money, but also creates political uncertainty.

While Singaporeans are accustomed to the ruling People’s Action Party winning elections by large margins, this may not be so in future, he said, and as margins become tighter, the possibility of having to do another poll will rise should a ballot box be lost.

Looking at past elections and doing his own calculations on how likely it is that a re-poll would have to be done under the amended laws, Assoc Prof Theseira said that in the 2011 General Election, for instance, if a ballot box was lost from each electoral division, the margin of victory would have been slim enough at two single-member constituencies to have required a fresh poll.

In the 2015 General Election, two single-member wards and one Group Representation Constituency (GRC) would have had to do so.

He suggested that in order to maintain a representative distribution of votes such that a recount will not be needed, people who may vote similarly and who arrive in groups, such as families, should split their ballots between boxes randomly.

“If the votes contained within one ballot box are missing at random, there is no issue in counting the remaining votes from the affected polling station,” Assoc Prof Theseira added.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, said that some constituents would be uncomfortable and would find it difficult to accept that all votes at the affected polling station are nullified because a ballot box was lost, tampered with, or damaged.

He added that a new poll of the affected electoral division “does not necessarily ensure a fair and equitable election”, and is as good as holding a by-election, especially when national results have already been announced.

NO PAST INCIDENTS OF DAMAGED BALLOT BOXES

WP’s NCMP Dennis Tan asked why the Government was “suddenly concerned” about the scenarios laid out in the provisions, and whether it was in relation to any incident that occurred in recent years.

Mr Chan replied that there have been no such instance of lost or damaged ballot boxes in past elections before votes were counted, and so, no fresh polls have had to be called for this reason.

He said that voters have a choice when they drop their ballot papers into the boxes in any polling station.

“It will not be possible for us to ascertain which voters cast their votes in the affected ballot box,” he added.

Voters can drop their ballot into any box, which serves as an added check on voting secrecy. “This has served us well… and we will continue with this current arrangement.”

The amendments to the law will lay out the steps to be taken in the event this happens in future, to ensure the “integrity of the election process”. These changes are part of the Elections Department’s continuing efforts to ensure processes are “kept afresh”, Mr Chan said.

Under the amended laws, there will also be a new option for election candidates to pay their election deposit through electronic fund transfers.

The election deposit will also be lowered. It will be based on the fixed monthly allowance of an elected MP, rounded to the nearest S$500. This means the election deposit will be S$13,500 with the new formula, based on an MP’s fixed current monthly allowance of S$13,750.

Under the previous formula, the election deposit is a sum equal to 8 per cent of the total allowance payable to an MP in the preceding calendar year, rounded to the nearest S$500. The election deposit at the 2015 General Election was S$14,500.

The next General Election is expected to be due by April 2021.

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