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http://iseeithinkiblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/24-hour-“cooling-off”-period-at-next-ge/
An extra “cooling-off” day before polling day itself will be introduced at the next General election during which campaigning will not be allowed so that voters can reflect “calmly” on their decision.
The announcement was made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to the Singapore media in Cuba where he was attending the Commonwealth meetings.
“The legislation is almost done now, but there has been a little bit of delay because we had one further thought, which is to extend the period between Nomination Day and Polling Day by one extra day and to use that extra day as a cooling off period before polling itself,” he said.
All campaigning including mass rallies, door-to-door visits and display of party logos and symbols in public places will be banned on the “cooling-off” day.
The one exception will be party political broadcasts, which are televised on the eve of the polls to summarise the messages of the different political parties. This, alongside news reporting on the election, will not be affected.
The new rule is likely to benefit the ruling party which has absolute control over the Singapore media including its only news agency and broadcast station. It is usually allocated a longer air time on TV than other political parties.
The latest move probably stem from a need to pre-empt a “freak” election from happening as it did in the Malaysian general elections last year when the opposition won 82 seats in the federal parliament thereby denying the ruling Barisan Nasional its traditional two-thirds majority.
The minimum period between Nomination Day and Polling Day will be extended from nine to 10 days to compensate for the extra cooling off day.
Opposition parties have long complained about the short campaigning period which give them little time to highlight important issues to the voters.
The campaigning period used to be as long as three months and it was only reduced to the current nine days after the PAP won the general election in 1963.
During the 2006 elections, the rallies of opposition parties are attended by ten of thousands of Singaporeans in contrast to the paltry crowd at PAP rallies whose participants were offered free food and transport to be persuaded to attend in the first place.
The extra “cooling-off” day will enable the PAP to use all organs of the state to sway the results in its favor and to lessen the impact of mass rallies.
More importantly, it will also act as a buffer to allow it to salvage the situation should it make another PR mistake which may peeve off the voters like the Gomez incident in the last election.
For a party which is used to having everything under its control, the “cooling-off” day is nothing more than another ploy to decrease the chances of the occurrence of a “freak” result.
An extra “cooling-off” day before polling day itself will be introduced at the next General election during which campaigning will not be allowed so that voters can reflect “calmly” on their decision.
The announcement was made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to the Singapore media in Cuba where he was attending the Commonwealth meetings.
“The legislation is almost done now, but there has been a little bit of delay because we had one further thought, which is to extend the period between Nomination Day and Polling Day by one extra day and to use that extra day as a cooling off period before polling itself,” he said.
All campaigning including mass rallies, door-to-door visits and display of party logos and symbols in public places will be banned on the “cooling-off” day.
The one exception will be party political broadcasts, which are televised on the eve of the polls to summarise the messages of the different political parties. This, alongside news reporting on the election, will not be affected.
The new rule is likely to benefit the ruling party which has absolute control over the Singapore media including its only news agency and broadcast station. It is usually allocated a longer air time on TV than other political parties.
The latest move probably stem from a need to pre-empt a “freak” election from happening as it did in the Malaysian general elections last year when the opposition won 82 seats in the federal parliament thereby denying the ruling Barisan Nasional its traditional two-thirds majority.
The minimum period between Nomination Day and Polling Day will be extended from nine to 10 days to compensate for the extra cooling off day.
Opposition parties have long complained about the short campaigning period which give them little time to highlight important issues to the voters.
The campaigning period used to be as long as three months and it was only reduced to the current nine days after the PAP won the general election in 1963.
During the 2006 elections, the rallies of opposition parties are attended by ten of thousands of Singaporeans in contrast to the paltry crowd at PAP rallies whose participants were offered free food and transport to be persuaded to attend in the first place.
The extra “cooling-off” day will enable the PAP to use all organs of the state to sway the results in its favor and to lessen the impact of mass rallies.
More importantly, it will also act as a buffer to allow it to salvage the situation should it make another PR mistake which may peeve off the voters like the Gomez incident in the last election.
For a party which is used to having everything under its control, the “cooling-off” day is nothing more than another ploy to decrease the chances of the occurrence of a “freak” result.
