The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election hopes increased promotion to members of the public of information on electoral procedures will help them further fulfil their civic responsibilities and duty, thereby contributing to a fair, just, open and clean election.
The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Mr Tong Hio Fong, today made the remarks during a public information session about the election process. The session, jointly held by the Electoral Affairs Commission and the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC), was attended by 180 people.
The election was set for 12 September. Work relating to every procedure of the election had been pressing ahead gradually, including the procedure for formation of nomination committees for those wishing to contest the election, Mr Tong said.
He added that the design of the application forms for the endorsement of a nomination committee had been updated. This was in order to make it clear that each registered voter was only entitled to endorse the nomination committee of a single election team. Violation by an individual of that rule might lead them to face a penalty: trustees of any would-be nomination committee had the duty to remind voters of that before asking them to sign a nomination committee endorsement application, Mr Tong added.
The Chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission went on to say that campaigning activities would only be allowed within the official campaigning period, which runs from 28 August to 10 September. No person, organisation or institution would be allowed to communicate electoral propaganda outside that period.
Deputy Commissioner of the CCAC, Ms Ao Ieong Seong, said during the session that the CCAC would launch a series of promotional campaigns to let candidates, campaigning teams and voters gain a better understanding of the regulations and law relating to the Legislative Assembly Election.
The CCAC would not tolerate, and would take stringent steps regarding, any suspicion of bribery revealed during the election process, added Ms Ao Ieong. Members of the public were invited to report any suspected election fraud to the CCAC or the Electoral Affairs Commission.
During the public briefing session, the secretariat of the Electoral Affairs Commission explained the respective election procedures for the direct and indirect election processes. These included: formation of nomination committees; submission of candidate forms and other mandatory documents required for election-related applications; campaigning activities; guidelines issued by the Electoral Affairs Commission; the spending cap for each campaigning team; and the ledgers required for election expenditure.
CCAC representative briefed the session attendees on: the neutrality and impartiality obligations of public entities, and of bodies with the same legal status; the definition of election bribery and related penalties; the responsibilities of civil servants in relation to any violation of relevant law; the election-related declaration obligations and declaration methods for legal persons and confirmed candidates, and the relevant penalties for violations; special cooperation obligations with the CCAC of public and private entities as set by the Legislative Assembly Election Law; and the channels to report election-related complaints.
