Singaporeans living in the United Kingdom were among the first to cast their votes in this year’s general election.
The Singapore High Commission in London opened its doors at 8am (3pm Singapore time) yesterday, but a queue of about 15 people had already formed 10 minutes earlier outside the building in the Belgravia area of the city.
Voters were standing at least 2m apart from one another, in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Poll letters issued to registered overseas voters listed instructions to wear a face covering and to keep a safe distance from others.
One of the first few in line at 7.45am was Mr Zack Ho, 28, who moved to London for work last year. The auditor from Aljunied GRC, who was voting overseas for the first time, said it is good that the GRC is keenly contested.
“It keeps (politicians) on their toes, with residents watching whether they deliver their promises after each election.”
Singapore Management University exchange student Darren Choy, 24, who is from Hougang SMC, flew to London from Moscow to cast his ballot.
The Elections Department has reiterated the voting arrangements for senior voters come July 10, to ensure that voting is safe in light of the Covid-19 situation.
SINGAPORE – While candidates took a breather from campaigning on Cooling-off Day, public servants set up 1,100 polling stations across the country for Singaporeans who will head to the ballot box on July 10.
Polling booths were set up at void decks, precinct pavilions, schools and community clubs on Thursday afternoon (July 9), with tables arranged in neat rows for polling officers, and signs directing voters to the stations.
Unlike in past elections, polling officers, who are public servants, have to implement extra measures to ensure safe distancing and hygiene, as some 2.65 million voters will be casting their votes under the cloud of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides temperature-checking points, markers have been placed on floors to ensure voters maintain a 1m distance from one another. Hand sanitisers and disposable gloves will also be made available.
The number of polling stations has been bumped up from 880 to 1,100 to spread out voters across more stations.
This increase means each station will serve an average of 2,400 voters, down from 3,000.
SINGAPORE: A day ahead of Polling Day on Friday (Jul 10), 1,100 places across the country were being prepared to become polling stations.
With more than 2.65 million Singaporeans expected to head to the polls as the world currently battles the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s polling station setup is markedly different.
Election officials putting up signs at 535 Bukit Panjang Ring Road polling station. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
An election official wipes down a wheelchair in preparation for Polling Day at 535 Bukit Panjang Ring Road polling station. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
At the 535 Bukit Panjang Ring Road polling station on Thursday, election officials were seen putting up safe-distancing stickers, preparing bottles of hand sanitiser and rehearsing temperature taking procedures in anticipation of the 1,670 voters expected to go through their station.
They also simulated the queuing up of voters as well as the registration and hand sanitisation process.
Election officials role-play the temperature screening of voters expected to happen on Polling Day. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Presiding Officer Ramli Abdul Razak noted that there is a “vast difference” between this election and the previous one in 2015, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“(Although) training started two years ago, it was stepped up after the writ was issued. (Election officials) have had to familiarise ourselves with the new precautionary measures put in place, such as the wearing of gloves and masks … to keep (the) general election safe,” he said.
Mr Ramli and other election officials also had to go through e-learning courses to prepare for the new safety measures that would be in place on Friday.
The 60-year-old, who was a counting assistant during the previous general election, added that he was proud to be able to do his part in” helping people feel safe” when they come to vote.
Election officials will be on duty from the time polling stations open at 8am to the time polls close at 8pm. They will be equipped with protective gear such as surgical masks, disposable gloves, face shields and pocket-sized hand sanitisers.
Election officials will be equipped with protective gear such as surgical masks, disposable gloves, face shields and pocket-sized hand sanitisers. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
THE VOTING PROCESS
When voters arrive at one of the 1,100 polling stations, they will first undergo a respiratory symptom and temperature screening.
Safe-distancing measures and special queues for those in need at a polling station. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Those with a fever of 37.5 degrees Celsius and above will be asked to vote during a special voting hour of 7pm to 8pm. Those on stay-home notices also have to vote at this time.
The use of an e-Registration system to verify voters against the electoral roll at polling stations eliminates the need for election officials to come into physical contact with them.
Voters must wear a face mask at all times and should lower them only when election officials need to verify their identity.
To minimise the risk of contaminating the self-inking “X” pen that will be used by other voters, or the ballot papers that counting assistants will handle, voters will need to sanitise their hands and wear disposable gloves before receiving their ballot cards and entering the polling booth.
Voters will have to sanitise their hands before putting on disposable gloves and collecting their ballot card. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Demonstrating the putting on of disposable gloves before entering the ballot booth. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
After dropping off their ballot paper into the polling box, voters can dispose of their gloves in designated trash bins outside the polling station.
Demonstrating the self-inking pen. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
At the ballot booths. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Dedicated cleaners will also be deployed at all polling stations to ensure a high level of hygiene and cleaning frequency during polling hours.
They will clean common touch-points such as polling booths and the self-inking “X” pens within the polling area at least once every half hour.
Inside the polling booth. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
After polls close, cleaners will thoroughly disinfect the polling stations.
Polling stations open at 8am on Friday and will close at 8pm.
A maid was so annoyed by her employer’s noisy pets that she flung a dog from the third-storey balcony of a house.
The 11-year-old toy poodle named Dou Dou landed on a grass patch and started bleeding from its mouth.
The Indonesian maid, Guyanti Wulandari, 28, then alerted her employer, Mr Stanley Hui, who took the dog to a vet. It was found to have suffered multiple injuries and was euthanised to reduce its suffering.
PAIN & SUFFERING
Guyanti was sentenced yesterday to four weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to one count of causing unnecessary pain and suffering to the dog.
Defence lawyer Louis Lim, who represented the maid pro bono, told the court that the maid started working at the Sunrise Walk house near Yio Chu Kang Road on Dec 15 last year.
She was tasked to perform chores, including cooking and looking after Mr Hui’s pets – two birds and two dogs. She had no prior experience in caring for pets, Mr Lim said.
National Parks Board (NParks) prosecutor Packer Mohammad said the maid went to a third-storey bedroom on May 13 this year to clean a bird cage. Dou Dou was also in the room.
SINGAPORE – A Singapore Polytechnic (SP) student used his mobile phone to record a video of a female schoolmate when she was inside a handicapped toilet on campus.
She spotted the device when the offender, Chan Wei Lun, 20, slipped it between the louvres of the toilet door.
The woman, also 20, opened the door and confronted him as he was walking away.
Chan pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday (July 8) to one count of insulting the woman’s modesty.
She cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her identity.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kor Zhen Hong said that Chan had been “feeling stressed from school matters”.
The DPP said: “Moreover, the accused felt some curiosity towards videos containing sexual content, which had been posted in WhatsApp and Telegram chat groups… the accused had previously joined.”
This led Chan to decide to take a video of the victim while she was inside the handicapped toilet, added the DPP.
The court heard that Chan recorded the video at around 1.30pm on Aug 14 last year when he was in SP.
Ma Jianguo, who killed two people at a roadblock set up to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, was executed in Yunnan province after China’s top court approved his death penalty.
The intermediate people’s court in Honghe prefecture of the province announced the decision made by the Supreme People’s Court to Ma on Thursday, and permitted him to meet his family members before the execution.
Ma, a native of Luomeng village in Azhahe township of the prefecture, was sentenced to death by the intermediate people’s court in the prefecture on March 1 after being convicted of killing two workers responsible for preventing and controlling the outbreak on Feb 6.
Ma, with another resident, went to the roadblock in a minivan, and the second man tried to move the barricades and refused to obey the workers in charge.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has reported 125 new coronavirus cases in Singapore today (July 9).
Of these, 21 cases are from within the community — four Singaporeans/PRs and 17 Work Pass holders, with a majority of cases being Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.
Of the 21 cases, five were close contacts of earlier cases, and had already been placed on quarantine, said MOH.
There is also one imported case that has been placed on stay-home notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore.
For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.
SINGAPORE – A search and rescue operation is underway in the waters off Tuas after the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was informed that three people had fallen overboard from a craft.
The Malaysian authorities had informed the MPA at around 8am on Tuesday (July 7) of the incident on a craft approximately 2.1 nautical miles off Tuas.
Following search and rescue (SAR) operations involving two MPA patrol craft, one Police Coast Guard (PCG) craft and one Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) vessel, the MPA received word at around 8.45am on Wednesday that the PCG had sighted a body.
The PCG has since recovered the body, and the authorities are looking into whether the body is one of the people who had fallen overboard.
“The MPA continues to coordinate the SAR operation with PCG and RSN for the other missing persons,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The MPA has also been issuing navigational safety broadcasts to vessels in the vicinity to keep a lookout and to report any sightings of the missing persons.
SINGAPORE – Singapore clinched three of the top five private equity and venture capital deals struck in the region in the first quarter amid markedly slower economic activity across South-east Asia due to the pandemic.
There were 141 such deals worth US$1.4 billion (S$1.95 billion) in the region in the three months to March 31, Ernst & Young noted on Wednesday (July 8).
This was 9 per cent down in terms of deal numbers and 65 per cent lower in value compared with the same period last year.
Exit activity – the resale of acquired assets – remained largely muted.
The report also found that the cash in hand for potential buyouts had reached record levels of US$439 billion by mid-May.
The biggest first-quarter deal in the region was the US$706 million investment by Krungsri Finnovate and MUFG Innovation Partners in the Singapore-based ride-hailing software company Grab Holdings.
The other two Singapore deals that made the top five were the US$75 million investment in eCommerce company ShopBack and the US$37 million in solar energy firm Sunseap Group by separate consortiums, both including Temasek Holdings.
