The SDP had written to the Elections Department and queried the inconsistencies regarding the rules and regulations of polling procedures. Different presiding officers seemed to apply the rules differently during the course of Polling Day.
The Elections Department (ELD) replied to clarify the rules which, in effect, only made matters more confusing. It asked for more information about the incidents and promised to "look into them further."
The Singapore Democrats continue to ask questions of the ELD because inconsistently applied rules create confusion and raise questions about the entire polling process and, hence, results.
Now that GE2011 is behind us, it is tempting to forget about all that happened and happened wrongly. However, we must continue to scrutinise the ELD's practices and procedures. This is especially important for future elections - the next one being just a few months away.
Volunteers, political parties indeed all citizens must hold the ELD to a high standard of transparency and fair-play.
In our on-going correspondence with the ELD, we provide the names and places where we spotted discrepancies and inconsistencies that need to be addressed.
One that needs particularly urgent attention is the transportation of the ballot boxes to the counting centres. Our polling agents reported that when a bus came to pick up the ballot boxes at their polling station, there were already ballot boxes on board. We presume that these were boxes that were picked up from another polling station.
Our polling agents wanted to verify this by checking those boxes. Unfortunately they were prevented from doing so. How does one ensure that the boxes being transported are indeed the ones that were used for polling during the day from another polling station?
Source: SDP
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