page_title: General elections in Singapore
section_title: Polling
hierarchical_section_title: General elections in Singapore / Election procedure / Polling day / Polling
caption_attribution_description: English: The front of a poll card issued for the Singaporean general election, 2011. The polling station in question was at the void deck of Block 115 Clementi Street 13 in the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency.
context_page_description: General elections in Singapore must be held within three months after five years have elapsed from the date of the first sitting of a particular Parliament of Singapore. However, in most cases Parliament is dissolved and a general election called at the behest of the Prime Minister before the five-year period elapses. The number of constituencies or electoral divisions is not permanently fixed by law, but is declared by the Prime Minister prior to each general election pursuant to the Parliamentary Elections Act, which governs the conduct of elections to Parliament, taking into account recommendations of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee. For the 2020 general election, there are 93 seats in Parliament organised into 14 Single Member Constituencies and 17 Group Representation Constituencies. Each SMC returns one Member of Parliament while each GRC returns between three and six MPs, at least one of whom must be from the Malay, Indian or other minority communities. A group of persons wishing to stand for election in a GRC must all be members of the same political party, or a group of independent candidates. The voting age in Singapore is 21 years.
context_section_description: Badges, favours, flags, rosettes, symbols, sets of colours, advertisements, handbills, placards, posters and replica voting papers may not be carried, worn, used or displayed by any person or on any vehicle as political propaganda, although candidates may wear replicas of the symbols allotted to them for election purposes. In addition, holding election meetings and canvassing are not permitted on the day before polling day and polling day itself. Canvassing involves trying to persuade a person to vote or not to vote in a particular way, or visiting a voter for an election-related purpose at home or at his or her workplace. It is also an offence to exercise undue influence on any person at or near a polling station, for instance, by trying to find out the identity of any person entering a polling station, recording voters' particulars, and waiting outside or loitering within 200 metres (660 ft) of polling stations.
  Voters receive poll cards informing them of the polling stations where they can cast their votes in person. Polling day at a general election is a public holiday, and voting is compulsory. Unless the returning officer decides otherwise, polling stations are open from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm on polling day. To vote, voters must go to the polling stations assigned to them. Applying for a ballot paper or voting in the name of someone else, or attempting to vote more than once, amounts to the offence of personation. If a person claiming to be a voter named in the electoral register turns up at a polling station after someone also claiming to be that voter has already voted, the second person is permitted to cast what is called a "tendered vote" using a ballot paper of a different colour after taking an oath to confirm his identity.
caption: A poll card issued for the 2011 general election
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