GE2020: No mistake in Govt Gazette on date of President’s proclamation to dissolve Parliament, says Factually

SINGAPORE — An electronic version of the Government Gazette containing President Halimah Yacob’s proclamation to dissolve Parliament ahead of the July 10 General Election did not contain a mistake over the date, the Government’s fact-checking agency Factually said. This was the agency's response to online images that are highlighting a supposed discrepancy.

The Government Gazette is published daily in an electronic form (an e-Gazette), Factually said in an update on its website published on Wednesday (June 24). Those e-Gazettes are dated according to the date of publication.

All the week’s announcements are compiled into a weekly print edition of the Government Gazette, which is published on Fridays, Factually added.

“Accordingly, the electronic version of Gazette notices carry the date on which they are first published electronically, and, by default, also carry the date of the Friday print copy they are part of, in the header,” the agency said.

“This is actually a long-standing practice of the Government Gazette,” it wrote.

The President’s proclamation to dissolve Parliament, which was gazette notification No. 1201, was first published on June 23 in the e-Gazette, the agency said. “It will be published in the print copy dated Friday, June 26, 2020,” it added.

Market and social research agency Black Dot Research said on its website on Thursday that it was alerted to images of the proclamation in the Government Gazette — with the different dates circled, that is, June 23 and June 26 — being forwarded on messaging service WhatsApp.

In a fact-checking section of its website, the firm said that it had “observed chatter on online forums that the discrepancy” might have indicated that something was not in order.

Anyone unsure of the authenticity of a Gazette notification found online may refer to the official e-Gazette found at www.egazette.com.sg, the Factually website wrote.