GE2020: Voters throng polling stations in the morning, with Covid-19 safety measures adding to the wait

SINGAPORE — Singaporeans braved the morning heat on Polling Day (Friday, July 10) as they queued at polling stations across the country to cast their votes in the 13th General Election (GE).

After voting opened at 8am, queues quickly formed at various polling stations in Potong Pasir and West Coast, observed TODAY reporters on the ground. 

This GE, voters have been given recommended time bands due to the Covid-19 situation, with those aged 65 and above asked to vote between 8am and 12pm.

Despite that, crowds of all ages turned up during the morning timeslot, prompting several voters to express unhappiness at the long wait times, lack of safe distancing and disorderly arrangements at several polling stations. 

“Part of the reason the queue is so long is because there are many young people here even though this timing (9am to 11am) is meant for those aged 55 and above,” said Mrs Teo Suan Khim, who was waiting to enter the polling station at Kent Ridge Secondary School in West Coast.

The 69-year-old retiree also said that it was “strange” how the seniors were made to stand under the heat despite the staggered timings. 

On Friday afternoon, the Elections Department (ELD) apologised for the “longer than usual queues” queues in the morning, saying that more voters had turned up than expected “outside their assigned voting time bands”.

“This, together with measures that had been put in place to ensure safe voting, had led to long queues,” it said. 

QUEUES POORLY MANAGED, SAY VOTERS

Mr Lam Kwong Seng, 70, who was waiting to enter the polling station at Kent Ridge Secondary School in West Coast, said that he had decided to have breakfast at a nearby hawker center after seeing the long queues, only to return to an even longer queue than before. 

“It doesn’t help that the situation is also disorderly and that there seems to be no safe distancing being enforced here,” said Mr Lam, a retiree. 

He added that the different queues for different polling districts within the station were not well organised by officials at the scene, adding to the confusion. 

Mr Lam’s sentiments were shared by Ms Jaslyn Tan, 47, who was waiting for her parents outside the school to finish voting. The finance executive said that elections officials “should set up signs to direct voters to the gates that correspond to their polling district”. 

Others, like university student Percival Tan, 24, attributed the long wait times to the putting on and taking off of the disposable gloves, adding that these should be done away with as the “sanitising of hands before and after was enough”. Mr Tan also added that the large volume of disposable gloves was not environmentally friendly. 

By Friday afternoon, the ELD had made disposable gloves optional, acknowledging that it “contributed to the longer than usual voting times”. Hand sanitiser, however, would still be required. 

Responding to TODAY’s queries on the management of queues, the ELD reiterated an earlier statement it issued on Friday, that “queues at polling stations had come down as of 11am,” and encouraged voters to stick to their voting time bands “as far as possible”. 

Not all voters were disgruntled, however. 

Homemaker Rachel Lim, 52, commented that while there was a queue at the Cedar Girls’ Secondary School polling station, it was “smooth and organised overall”. She added that it felt safe as they were standing still in the queue and observing safe distancing, rather than “moving around too much, going in all directions (like in hawker centres or supermarkets)”. 

Ms Lim Yan Nee, 60, who was accompanying her parents to vote, said that while the queue was long, this was understandable as many seniors require assistance from their family members to vote, and that “there was a higher proportion of elderly people nowadays.”

Similarly, Ms Mabel Khoo, 53, said that she felt safe while voting as the necessary precautions, such as the wearing of gloves and masks, as well as the sanitising of hands before voting, were taken. 

As of noon, the ELD said that 840,000 voters, or 31 per cent of registered voters, had already cast their votes.