Elections Department

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The Elections Department manages the conduct of Presidential and Parliamentary elections and any national referendum in Singapore. It oversees the Registry of Political Donations (RPD). The RPD administers the Political Donations Act, the objective of which is to prevent foreign interference in Singapore’s domestic politics through funding.

The Registrar of Political Donations is the competent authority that administers the reporting requirements under FICA for election candidates and election agents during Presidential or Parliamentary elections.

FICA refers to the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021 which seeks to prevent foreigners from interfering in Singapore’s domestic politics through funding as one of its measures. It prohibits Politically Significant Persons (PSPs), which include political associations, candidates and their election agents from accepting donations other than from permissible sources and restricts the receipt of anonymous donations. However, the ELD comes under the purview of the PMO whose political appointees currently all come from the PAP.

Between elections, ELD must ensure that the Registers of Electors are up to date so as to be ready for any election called at any time. However, registration of political parties come under the Registry of Societies (ROS) which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Comparison with UK's Electoral Commission

Unlike the UK's Electoral Commission which is an independent body that oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK, Singapore's ELD is a department under the PMO's office.

As a comparison, the UK's Electoral Commission also acts as a regulator to carry out the following duties:

• maintain registers of political parties in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and register non-party campaigners
• provide guidance for anyone who might want to stand or campaign in an election
• publish political finance data
• regulate the imprint rules for parties and campaigners
• take action if they have reason to suspect the political finance law has been broken

Controversy

• about 200 Singaporeans have informed the Elections Department (ELD) that their names are not in the Registers of Electors for the upcoming Presidential Election (2023), even though they said they voted in the 2020 General Election
• Over 1,000 voters wrongly taken off voter rolls in PE 2023, due to human errors in GE 2020
• incident where 9,822 voters in Tanjong Pagar GRC received two poll cards