Article 21(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
At MARUAH, we believe in everyone’s right to a free and fair election.
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Posted by jamestan2019
Article 21(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
At MARUAH, we believe in everyone’s right to a free and fair election.
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Posted by jamestan2019
At MARUAH, we believe in everyone’s right to a free and fair election.
In July 2020, we published a series of six posts in as part of a ‘GE2020 series’.
The messaging contained within is still as relevant as ever, and serve as a timely reminder that everyone has a right to a free and fair election.
We will be republishing these posts and our messages over the next few days leading up to Polling Day.
Thank you.
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Posted by jamestan2019
In a 2007 paper published by Dr. Lisa Handley, “Challenging the Norms and Standards of Election Administration: Boundary Delimitation”, she explained how certain fundamental principles should be considered when setting international election standards to guide the delimitation process.
Dr. Handley concluded that “there is no single best model for delimiting constituency boundaries. The wide variety of delimitation practices, many of them quite successful, attest to this. However, it is important to establish standards to which the delimitation process might aspire, if current practices do not already meet them. These standards will need to be flexible to be relevant to both mature and transitional democracies, but underlying all of them should be the fundamental principles of impartiality, equality, representativeness, nondiscrimination, and transparency.
Meeting standards that include an impartial boundary authority (guided by principles like equal voting strength, representativeness, and non-discrimination) as well as a process that is as transparent as possible offers credibility and legitimacy to a process that can have decided political consequences. The table below provides a summary of the principles that should guide the delimitation process and some examples of best practices that meet these standards.“
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Posted by jamestan2019
Boundary delimitation usually refers to the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. However, it can also be used to denote the process of drawing voting areas (also called polling areas, districts or election precincts) for the purposes of assigning voters to polling places. The periodic delimitation of electoral boundaries is necessary in any representative system where single-member districts or uniformly small multi-member districts are used. If electoral boundaries are not periodically adjusted, population inequities develop across districts.
Countries have adopted various methods for delimiting districts. Countries that delimit districts must establish a formal structure and a set of rules for carrying out the delimitation process. In some, the choice of methods is simply a matter of historical tradition, but the delimitation can also be based on a variety of factors that may include the geographic size of the country, its physical features, or its financial resources. Different sets of districts can produce different election outcomes, and even if the underlying vote patterns remain constant, the choice of delimitation practices is important.
Source: ACE Electoral Knowledge Network
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Posted by jamestan2019
The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
21. Although the Covenant does not impose any particular electoral system, any system operating in a State party must be compatible with the rights protected by article 25 and must guarantee and give effect to the free expression of the will of the electors. The principle of one person, one vote must apply, and within the framework of each State’s electoral system, the vote of one elector should be equal to the vote of another. The drawing of electoral boundaries and the method of allocating votes should not distort the distribution of voters or discriminate against any group and should not exclude or restrict unreasonably the right of citizens to choose their representatives freely.
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Posted by jamestan2019
Overseas Singaporeans were allowed to vote by post for the first time in the 2023 Presidential Election. Unfortunately, over 40% of postal ballots were disallowed, and even among the ballot papers that were accepted, 4% of those were rejected due to irregularities in the marking of the ballot paper.
The government has not announced any changes to the postal balloting procedure since the 2023 election, and its reply to a PQ raised by NCMP Hazel Poa suggests that they will not make any major changes to the procedure before the parliamentary elections this year.
While ELD released detailed instructions and an instructional video for postal voters in 2023, the process is a multi-step process, and as evidenced by the high rejection rate of postal ballots, it is not as simple as voting in a polling station in Singapore.
Under the law, postal ballots must be received by ELD within 10 days after polling day. Registered overseas voters can download their postal ballots from ELD’s website the day after nomination day and the ballots must be mailed out before polling day. That means that registered overseas voters have only eight (8) days to download their postal ballots, decide who to vote for, and post their ballots. In addition, the ballot must be received by ELD in Singapore within ten (10) days after polling day. Given the vagaries of weather, postal strikes and just general deterioration in postal services around the world, postal voters should post their ballots as early as possible to make sure that their votes are counted.
Unfortunately, just dropping off the ballot at the nearest post box is not enough. Voters must ensure that their return envelopes have a legible postmark, dated at least one day before polling day. This leads to the biggest problem that postal voters face:
ELD provides business return reply envelopes for voters, but many countries do not routinely postmark business reply envelopes, so many voters had their ballots rejected in 2023 because their return envelopes were not postmarked at all. ELD is aware of this issue and does recommend that postal voters apply stamps to the return envelopes so that there will be a postmark to provide evidence of the date of posting.
Voters must also take into account that some postal services do not pick up mail from all post boxes every day. And even if the mail is picked up, it may not be postmarked until it is processed at a sorting facility several days later. This means that even if the return envelope is dropped in a post box on time, it may not be postmarked until after the deadline, resulting in the ballot being disallowed.
As mentioned earlier, overseas voters should post their ballots as early as possible to prevent their ballots from being rejected. Those who want to be extra kiasu may even go to a post office personally to ask for their return envelopes to be manually postmarked by counter staff.
I do not advise using an express mail or courier service to return the postal ballot papers. If the official ELD return envelope is enclosed inside an envelope provided by the courier company, there will not be any postmarks on the official return envelope itself. Those ballots would then be rejected because elections officials are only allowed to look at postmarks on the official return envelope.
As mentioned above, ELD gives very detailed instructions on how to print, mark and post postal ballots. Even seemingly minor deviations from the instructions may cause ballots to be rejected. For example,
The rules may seem to be nitpicky but they are important because elections officials have to be sure that ballots received are from the correct person, and have not been tampered with. Apart from written instructions, ELD also provides an instructional video to guide the voter through the process, so voters should follow the instructions to make sure their vote is counted.
The mechanics of postal balloting are moot if the overseas Singaporean is not registered as an overseas voter. Overseas voters must re-register as an overseas voter every time that the Electoral Registers are revised, and since the Registers were revised today, that means that all overseas Singaporeans must register as overseas voters if they want to vote, even if they were registered previously. This can be done online on ELD’s website up to three days after the writ of election is issued. During registration, overseas voters can register to vote at overseas polling stations, or to vote by post. In either case, if the voter is physically present in Singapore on polling day, he or she can still vote in person at a local polling station.
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Posted by stngiam
Maruah has submitted the following feedback to Elections Department of Singapore (“ELD”) in view of the General Election due by next year, and ELD’s announcement that it had made some changes to electoral procedures as a result of experience gained in the 2023 Presidential Election:
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To: Elections Department, Prime Minister’s Office
Maruah is gratified that you are responding to public feedback and providing more space on ballot papers for voters to indicate their choice. During last year’s Presidential Election, ELD also introduced two new methods of voting – postal ballots and special polling stations at nursing homes. More voters were able to have their voices heard thanks to these new procedures, but there is room for improvement in these procedures.
In the case of postal balloting, over 40% of postal ballots received were rejected, mostly due to illegible or missing postmarks, or late delivery. These were not the fault of the voters, and I urge ELD to adopt more reliable ways of validating the dates of dispatch instead of relying solely on the vagaries of foreign postal systems. The forms and instructions for voting should also be improved to reduce the chance of inadvertent errors such as voters signing their forms at the wrong place or posting multiple ballots in the same envelope.
In the case of nursing homes, residents were pre-selected for participation based on the homes’ assessments of their ability to vote. Unfortunately, from my own observations as a polling agent, a large proportion of the selected residents did not appear to have the mental capacity to vote or to clearly indicate their choice. This was alluded to by Minister Chan Chun Sing in a written reply to a Parliamentary Question on 4 October 2023, where he said “election officials did face challenges including managing voters who may lack the mental capacity to vote”. To prevent any disputes in future over the validity of votes at nursing homes, ELD should tighten and standardise the criteria used to assess the mental capacity of residents before they vote. ELD should also evaluate the usefulness of mobile polling stations at nursing homes.
Maruah would like to thank ELD, and the thousands of elections officials and public servants involved in elections, for their continual efforts to improve the voting experience and making it easier for Singaporeans to exercise their right and duty of voting.
MARUAH Singapore
June 2024
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Posted by jamestan2019
On the 11-year anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone, we, the undersigned civil society organizations and individuals, strongly condemn the Lao government’s continued failure to provide necessary information as to his fate and whereabouts and reiterate our calls to the authorities to deliver truth, justice and reparations to his family.
International concerns over Sombath’s case, expressed by international civil society, United Nations (UN) human rights experts, and UN member states on last year’s anniversary of Sombath’s enforced disappearance, have been ignored by the Lao government.
On 25 September 2023, in a submission to the UN Human Rights Committee as part of its follow-up review of Laos under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Lao government repeated previous misleading statements and miserably failed to provide any additional information on the steps it said it had taken to find Sombath. The government claimed it “never stopped trying to find the truth” about Sombath’s fate “in order to bring the offender(s) to justice.” In reality, the Lao authorities have continued to disregard Sombath’s wife, Shui Meng Ng, and have not provided her with any updates on her husband’s case since 2017. The government then made the extraordinary assertion that its Task Force’s investigation had been “carried out on the basis of transparency, impartiality and accountability, including the use of modern investigative techniques consistent with international standards by the capable inquiry officials.” It concluded that the case of Sombath needed “more time for investigation” and added that the Task Force was “still active in the investigation” and had “not yet closed the case.”
These government statements are unequivocally false in suggesting any degree of transparency. Existing evidence is clear that the Lao government has been engaged in a continuous cover-up of the facts of Sombath’s case since he was forcibly disappeared in 2012, including providing misleading information about its actions to his family, the Lao public, and the international community, as stated above.
We deplore the unmistakable pattern of inaction, negligence, and obfuscation that various Lao authorities have repeatedly engaged in for more than a decade and we continue to resolutely stand in solidarity with Sombath’s family and all other victims of enforced disappearances in Laos.
We reiterate our calls on the Lao authorities to take real and effective measures to establish the fate or whereabouts of Sombath and all other victims of enforced disappearances in the country, identify the perpetrators of such serious crimes, and provide victims with an effective remedy and full reparations. We also urge the government to immediately ratify without reservations the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which it signed in 2008, and to fully implement it into national law, policies and practices.
As upcoming chair for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Laos will be placed in a strategic position to lead the regional efforts to strengthen, promote, and protect human rights. However, its continued failure to act on Sombath’s enforced disappearance sends a message of inadequacy to head the regional bloc and to fulfill ASEAN’s purpose under Article 1(7) of the ASEAN Charter, which is to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance, and the rule of law and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.
We will continue to seek justice and accountability for Sombath. Until the truth is found and justice is delivered to his family, we will not stop demanding answers from the Lao government to the same question we have been asking for the past 11 years: “Where is Sombath?”
Background
Sombath Somphone, a pioneer in community-based development and youth empowerment, was last seen at a police checkpoint on a busy street of Vientiane on the evening of 15 December 2012. Footage from a traffic CCTV camera showed that police stopped Sombath’s vehicle at the checkpoint and that, within minutes, unknown individuals forced him into another vehicle and drove him away in the presence of police officers. CCTV footage also showed an unknown individual arriving and driving Sombath’s vehicle away from the city center. In December 2015, Sombath’s family obtained new CCTV footage from the same area and made it public. The video shows Sombath’s car being driven back towards the city by an unknown individual.
For further information, please visit: https://www.sombath.org/en/
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Posted by jamestan2019
Maruah is pleased to announce the winners of our essay contest for young Singaporeans on their vision for a Singapore beyond Lee Kuan Yew. The contest was organised to encourage young Singaporeans to evaluate Mr Lee’s legacy and consider how they would retain or modify his legacy for Singapore.
Eight years after Mr Lee’s death, the imprint of Lee Kuan Yew can still be clearly seen in public discourse on many issues. For example, the controversy over the renting of colonial bungalows to Government ministers, the arrest of a Government minister on suspicion of corruption, and even the resignations of People’s Action Party (PAP) and opposition Members of Parliament over extra-marital affairs are legacies of Mr Lee’s determination that politicians in Singapore be whiter-than-white. The Elected Presidency was also a creation of LKY, and just by voting in the recent Presidential Election, all Singaporeans are participating in a system that Mr Lee established.
Almost a decade after his death, Mr Lee’s legacy remains ubiquitious in Singapore but the World does not stay still, and as he himself would have recognised, Singaporeans, especially young Singaporeans have to think of how they would retain or modify LKY’s legacy to meet their needs and aspirations in a rapidly-changing environment. This was the question posed to participants in the contest and the judging panel selected four winners, in no particular order – Lam Yu Han, Luke Lee, Desiree Leong and Wesley Ng.
Lam Yu Han, a 23-year-old full-time National Serviceman who volunteers in the community and has an interest in social issues and politics. Lam is grateful for the economic prosperity and security that Mr Lee’s leadership brought to Singapore, but is also perturbed by the Out-of-Bounds (OB) markers the Government places on media and even on individuals who choose self-censorship as the path of least resistance. In his view, Mr Lee will only be able to rest peacefully in his grave when Singapore has both a government that has the competence and legitmacy to take on the challenges facing the nation, and a society that can discuss ideas freely and intelligently.
Luke Lee, 22, was also in National Service when he entered the essay contest as a means of educating himself to examine issues wholistically and objectively. Growing up, Luke had only been taught the positive aspects of Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), and only later in life became aware of more questionable aspects such as LKY’s use of the Internal Security Act against political opponents, and eugenic policies including the Graduate Mothers’ Scheme. Luke’s wish is that people can express divergent opinions without fear, and wrote the essay to meet his own aspiration and as an encouragement to others.
Desiree Leong has been working with Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) for seven years where she has seen first-hand that migrant worker issues are often at the coalface of broader issues facing society. Ms Leong feels strongly that this country is her home and where she wants to make a difference. She believes that for Singapore to move forward together as an inclusive society, we will have to come to terms with the past so as to truly make it our past.
Wesley Ng is an undergraduate in Poltical Science & South East Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS) with an interest in the politics of South East Asia. Mr Ng hopes that Singapore will continue and cherish the parts of LKY’s legacy that reinforce Singaporeans’ belief that their nation can continue to remain united regardless of race, language or religion, and to succeed against the odds. At the same time, he argues that Singapore today calls for a different style of governance – One that recognizes that while the post-LKY leaders need strong public trust to succeed, the leaders also need to trust that the citizenry are aware of what is best for Singapore and of what Singapore needs to succeed.
These four essays are only a small sample of the views that young Singaporeans have on LKY’s legacy and of the Singapore that they hope to see in the future. Maruah hopes all Singaporeans will continue to engage in meaningful discussions of the home that they wish to live in and to build in the future.
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Posted by stngiam
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