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Room for improving voting process, campaigning ethics for free and fair elections: MARUAH to ELD

Daniel Goh, Workers’ Party candidate.

Human rights advocacy group MARUAH has written a letter to Mr Lee Seng Lup, Head of the Elections Department, to call for more stringent requirements on the balloting process, and for clarity on the guidelines for media houses covering the election in the wake of the latest incident where Mr Daniel Goh from the Workers’ Party was questioned about an alleged extramarital affair by publications under the Singapore Press Holding.

The letter, also published on MARUAH’s Facebook page, sought ELD’s clarification on the sealing of ballot boxes, guidelines for re-entry of polling and counting agents, procedures for checking samples of ballots, and called for samples to be provided to help officials decide on unconfirmed ballots.

MARUAH also questioned the new rules of disallowing leaders of a political party from speaking at rallies organised by other parties, calling it “deplorable”.

“There is no plausible reason for the rules on grounds of public order or safety,” said MARUAH. “This rule is a gross violation of Singaporeans’ right to free speech.”

Noting that certain parties have come together to jointly contest in wards, such as the Singapore People’s Party and the Democratic Progressive Party in Bishan Toa Payoh GRC, MARUAH said that this is “unfair to the two opposition parties”.

“While this rule was apparently made for a short-term political purpose, it has long-term implications in that it creates a barrier by administrative fiat to the establishment of coalitions between political parties in Singapore despite the fact that there is no constitutional or statutory basis for doing so.”

MARUAH also questioned ELD’s standards on media houses for what they can publish that can potentially damage candidates, given that there are currently similar guidelines for political parties governing ethical practices.

MARUAH’s letter is appended in full below.  CONTINUE >>  

MARUAH'S FACEBOOK HERE >>