Oh look, they’ve kindly made the decision for us. Singaporeans won’t have to vote in the contentious reserved presidential election because there won’t even be one — the Elections Department only issued one Certificate of Eligibility.
They didn’t state who, but c’mon, all know who got it. Though it’s disappointing that all the cards were already stacked in her favor, at least Singapore will have its first female head-of-state come Sept 13.
According to the Elections Department, out of the five individuals who applied for Certificates of Eligibility, only one will be issued. Three declared that they belonged to the Malay community and applied for Malay Community Certificates, so that booted out the two moppets who didn’t, as this Presidential Election was reserved for Malay candidates only.
No names were mentioned, but it’s understood that the three applicants who were certified as belonging to the Malay community are Bourbon Offshore Asia Pacific chairman Farid Khan, Second Chance Properties founder and CEO Mohamed Salleh Marican, and former People’s Action Party stalwart and Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob.
Of the three, Halimah has always been considered the forerunner in the race, since she meets the required eligibility to run. She fulfils the public sector requirement of serving at least three years in office, whereas other two reportedly fall short of fulfilling the qualifications for private sector candidates.
So it doesn’t take much brain power to deduce that the only individual eligible to run for the elections is none other than Halimah Yacob. It’ll be a walkover (like many expected), which means the 63-year-old is set to be Singapore’s eighth president. She is expected to be sworn in after nominations close at noon this Wednesday.
The Elections Department noted that they won’t be publicly disclosing why unsuccessful applicants failed in their bids — the reason being to “reduce the prospect of potential applicants being dissuaded from stepping forward to contest the elections”. Unsuccessful applicants, however, are free to publish the reasons given on their own.
In a statement published by The Straits Times, Farid was disappointed, but he accepted the Committee’s decision and thanked all who gave him their support, vowing to continue serving the people. Salleh too found it disappointing that he was not certified to run, but promised to regroup with his team to help the disadvantaged in Singapore.
In any case, at least there’ll be an actual president living in the siao lang town of Yishun if she gets her wishes.
Public outcry begins
No doubt, Halimah Yacob has the satisfactory capability to do the job, but the angry reactions on the ground stem from the impression that all the political theatrics and motions were a charade by the ruling government, who already intended to put her in the position from the start. The outpouring of public disappointment has been clear on social media since the news broke.
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