Winner, former deputy head of ruling party, gets third of votes in close contest.
The city-state’s former deputy prime minister, Tony Tan, won a four-way race in Singapore’s presidential election, held on Saturday, defeating his closest rival, Tan Cheng Bock, by only 0.34 per cent or a mere 7,269 votes.
Tony Tan won 35.19 per cent of the votes, with Tan Cheng Bock, a former lawmaker, at 34.85 per cent. The other two contenders, Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian, garnered 25.04 per cent and 4.91 per cent of the votes, respectively.
Although all contenders ran as independents, in line with Singapore’s requirement for having a non-partisan head of state, Tony Tan, who most recently was the deputy chairman of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, has the strongest links with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).
His narrow victory has been interpreted as a verdict against the PAP, which has been in power since Singapore’s independence, and comes months after the country’s general elections in May, where the ruling party suffered its worst electoral result since 1965.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who had earlier spoken “positively” of Tony Tan after he entered the presidential race, said in a statement early today that voters had faced a difficult choice.
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“This explains why the winning margin is so narrow, and why the winner only gained slightly more than one-third of the total votes. Nevertheless, under our first-past-the-post system, the election has produced an unambiguous winner, who has the mandate to be the next President,” Lee said.
Adding: “Now that the election is over, we should all come together again as Singaporeans, to tackle the challenges that Singapore faces and take our nation forward.”
Although a largely ceremonial role, Singapore’s president is seen as the custodian of the island-nation’s financial reserves and also has the power to veto key public appointments.
Tan, 71, will be sworn in on September 1 for a six-year term. He replaces S R Nathan, who has been in office since 1999.
A LITTLE DRAMA
About 2.1 million Singaporeans went to vote for the first competitive presidential election in 18 years on an overcast Saturday and, after voting closed at 8 pm, had to wait some eight hours till past 4 am today for the verdict.
If the run-up to the vote had been short on significant excitement, Singapore’s presidential election delivered the drama after votes were cast.
Hours into counting, Tan Kin Lian, a former chief executive of local insurer NTUC Income, conceded defeat. He ended with fewer than five per cent of votes and, in accordance with rules, will lose his S$48,000 deposit. A minimum of 12.5 per cent of votes is required for a candidate to recover the deposit.
As the night wore on, well past midnight, the elections department announced that “the two candidates with the most votes are Tan Cheng Bock and Tony Tan”.
“The difference is not more than two per cent of the total number of valid votes cast. The returning officer has allowed the recounting of all votes cast in Singapore,” the statement added.
By then, Tan Jee Say, a former senior civil servant, said he was also way out of contention, leaving the contest to be fought between the remaining two Tans. Tan Jee Say, who resigned from an Opposition party to run in the presidential election, brought in just over 25 per cent of votes, but was seen by some as confrontational.
With a three-hour recount having been undertaken, it was only at 4.25 am today that returning officer Yam Ah Mee finally announced the results of Singapore’s most intensely fought presidential elections.