Voting in Singapore’s election was extended yesterday, after disease prevention measures led to long lines and delays at polling stations.
Voting is mandatory in the affluent city-state, but many fretted about the risks as they lined up in masks for as long as an hour to cast their ballots, with jobs at the top of their agenda as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to cause Singapore’s worst-ever recession.
The People’s Action Party (PAP), in power since independence in 1965, is expected by analysts to carry Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) to another comfortable, and probably final, victory.
Photo: Bloomberg
All around the city-state, election officials wearing visors enforced distancing rules and took voters’ temperatures.
The delays convinced the election authority to drop a requirement for voters to wear gloves and by evening it had extended voting by two hours to 10pm.
Since a COVID-19 lockdown eased last month after two months, the number of new daily cases has crept back into double figures, excluding the migrant workers living in dormitories where infection rates have been far higher.
“This is a very dangerous time to hold an election, even though many precautions were taken,” Mayank Goel, 21, a biomedical engineering student, said after voting.
Social distancing rules constrained campaigning and no party rallies were allowed, but opposition parties and rights groups still warned that holding the election now could distract from government efforts to tackle the virus.
The poll is widely seen as a test of views on the government’s response to the crisis and the next generation of leaders, and the results will be closely watched, as even small shifts in the PAP’s popularity can lead to major policy changes.
Organizers had hoped for fast, hygienic voting to minimize risks. Voters were given a recommended time slot and inside the polling stations, they had to self-scan identity cards and sanitize their hands before receiving a ballot paper.
Sample counts were expected soon after polling closes with final results due today.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique