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Mengundi Singapore
How to vote

Hari Mengundi · 投票日 · வாக்களிப்பு நாள்

One cross,
compulsory.

Every citizen aged 21 and over is on the register, and every registered voter must vote. Miss a poll and your name is struck off until you apply to put it back.

No election is under way. The next presidential election is due by 13 Sep 2029 and the next general election by 5 Dec 2030. To check your own registration or polling station, use ELD's Voter Services with Singpass: this site does not look up voters.

Parliamentary Elections Act s.5

Who can vote.

Citizen, 21, resident

A Singapore citizen, at least 21 years old on the cut-off date (1 July unless gazetted otherwise), ordinarily resident in Singapore (a local contact address counts) and not disqualified (PEA s.5).

Compulsory

Voting is compulsory. A registered elector who does not vote is struck off the register and cannot vote or stand at any later election until restored (PEA s.43).

Back on the register

Restoration is free with a good and sufficient reason, otherwise on payment of $50 (PEA s.43(8), (8A)); applications are not accepted between the writ and polling day. Online via ELD with Singpass, or at a community centre or ELD. Reasons ELD accepts include working, studying or living with a spouse overseas, an overseas holiday, and illness or childbirth.

2,758,846 electors were registered for GE2025. The Registration Officer received the lists of those who did not vote on 29 May 2025; they could be inspected at ELD and community centres from 30 May.

From poll card to count

Polling Day.

  1. On the register

    ELD compiles the registers from the address on each citizen's NRIC on the cut-off date (1 February 2025 for GE2025). There is nothing to sign up for at home: if you are 21 and a citizen, you are on it. Permanent residents cannot vote.

  2. Poll card

    If your constituency is contested, a poll card arrives by post two or three working days after Nomination Day, with your polling station and serial number. The ePoll card in the Singpass app works in its place.

  3. Polling Day

    Polls open 8am to 8pm. Polling Day is a public holiday at general and presidential elections, but not at by-elections. ELD's VoteQ site shows the queue at each station.

  4. In the booth

    An election official issues the ballot paper, writes your serial number on the counterfoil and calls your name. Stamp an X beside one candidate or team, fold the paper and put it in the box.

  5. The count

    Boxes are sealed and taken to counting centres after the polls close; candidates' agents watch and may object to a paper. Used ballot papers are kept at the Supreme Court for six months and then destroyed.

Help at the station

Drop-off points near the voting areas for vehicles with senior voters or voters with special needs; barrier-free voting areas and wheelchairs; priority queuing. On request an election official will mark the ballot paper for the voter, under oath to keep the vote secret. There is no voting facility for someone due to give birth on Polling Day: they apply afterwards to restore their name, with a valid reason.

PEA s.50 · rejected votes

Mark the ballot.

ELD asks for a cross, not a tick, as in the United Kingdom and Canada, and its self-inking stamp prints one. At the count the Returning Officer must reject a paper only for one of five reasons, and must not reject one whose mark clearly shows the voter's choice.

Practice ballot · fictional candidates

Choose a mark, then press a voting box or the edge of the paper. ELD's polling stations give you a self-inking stamp that prints an “X”.

Parliamentary election · Practice division OFFICIAL
MARK

Vote for one candidate only. Put a cross (X) in the box opposite the candidate you are voting for.

  1. Candidate A Party of the Lion
  2. Candidate B Orchid Party
  3. Candidate C Independent

Unmarked

Unmarked: nothing to count.

PEA s.50(1)(d)

Rejected

No official mark; votes for more than one candidate or team; anything that identifies the voter; unmarked; or void for uncertainty (s.50(1)). Marks outside the voting area are ignored (s.50(2A)). The Returning Officer's decision is final.

Spoilt

A “spoilt” ballot paper is one the voter damages by mistake and hands back for a fresh one before voting (s.45). It is cancelled and never counted. ELD's results report both numbers separately.

Secret, with a number

Each paper has a serial number on the back so that every paper can be accounted for; only a court, on an election petition alleging fraud or counterfeit papers, can order the papers opened.

The practice ballot is in English only: we found no official four-language text of the ballot instructions to reproduce, so none is translated here.

PEA ss.13A, 56B · GE2025

Voting from abroad.

Singaporeans living overseas can register as overseas electors, if they have spent at least 30 days in Singapore in the three years before applying (s.13A). Amendments in force from 14 June 2024 let them vote by post as well as in person; GE2025 was the first election held under them.

18,389 overseas voters registered for GE2025, 0.67% of all electors.

  • Beijing
  • Canberra
  • Dubai
  • Hong Kong
  • London
  • New York
  • San Francisco
  • Shanghai
  • Tokyo
  • Washington, D.C.

In person

Ten overseas polling stations in Singapore missions, open 8am to 8pm local time, but always closing by 8pm Singapore time, so stations in the Americas and Europe open early or close early.

By post

Postal voters download their papers, mark them and post the return envelope before polls close in Singapore; it must have a postmark and reach the Returning Officer by the 10th day after Polling Day to be counted. Downloading the papers counts as an attempt to vote, so a late envelope does not strike the voter off.

Home on Polling Day

An overseas voter back in Singapore may vote at their local station instead, after declaring they have not already voted. Overseas voting is not for residents who happen to be on holiday.

What may not be said, and when

Cooling-off and silence.

No election surveys

From the day the writ is issued until every polling station has closed, no one may publish the result of an election survey, or anything purporting to be one (PEA s.78C; PrEA s.60B). Fine up to $1,500, jail up to 12 months, or both. This site also withholds prediction-market prices for the same window.

No exit polls

On polling day, until every station has closed, no statement of how voters voted based on what they said after voting, and no forecast from it (PEA s.78D; PrEA s.60C).

Cooling-off Day

From midnight on the eve of polling day to the close of polls, no election advertising (PEA s.61C; PrEA s.42C), no canvassing or house visits (s.80) and no election meetings (s.80A). Exceptions include news by authorised news agencies, party political broadcasts, badges and lawful advertising already online (s.61D).

Election advertising

Online election advertising must say who published it and on whose behalf (s.61B); unauthorised third-party advertising (s.61K) and advertising by foreigners (s.61M) are offences. Since 22 January 2025, s.61MA bans realistic digitally generated or manipulated depictions of a candidate saying or doing something they did not (Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Act 2024).

Online falsehoods (POFMA)

The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019 lets a minister direct a correction notice or removal of an online statement of fact the minister deems false and against the public interest; the directions can be challenged in the High Court. During an election period the powers pass to an alternate authority, a public officer appointed before the period begins.

GE2025, from boundaries to Parliament

  1. 22 Jan 2025 Boundaries committee convened. The Prime Minister convenes the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, chaired by the Secretary to the Prime Minister.
  2. 11 Mar 2025 Boundaries report published. 33 electoral divisions (15 SMCs, 8 four-member and 10 five-member GRCs) and 97 seats, up from 93; the report reached the Prime Minister on 7 March.
  3. 15 Apr 2025 Parliament dissolved; writ issued. The President dissolves the 14th Parliament on the Prime Minister's advice and the writ of election is issued the same day. From this day no election survey may be published (PEA s.78C).
  4. 23 Apr 2025 Nomination Day. Nominations are received from 11am to 12 noon at the nomination centres. Marine Parade–Braddell Heights GRC is uncontested and its PAP team is returned unopposed; campaigning runs until the eve of polling.
  5. 2 May 2025 Cooling-off Day. From 12 midnight, no election advertising, rallies or canvassing (PEA ss.61C, 80, 80A); party political broadcasts and news reports continue.
  6. 3 May 2025 Polling Day. Polling stations open 8am to 8pm, and ten overseas polling stations on their own hours. A public holiday. Exit polls are barred until every station has closed (PEA s.78D).
  7. 4 May 2025 Results. Counted overnight: the PAP wins 87 seats with 65.57%, the Workers' Party 10. 2,438,610 votes cast, turnout 92.83% once overseas votes were counted.
  8. 19 May 2025 NCMPs declared. Andre Low (WP, Jalan Kayu SMC) and Eileen Chong (WP, Tampines GRC), the best-placed losing opposition candidates, are declared Non-Constituency MPs.
  9. 23 May 2025 Cabinet sworn in. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's new Cabinet is sworn in at the Istana.
  10. 5 Sep 2025 15th Parliament opens. First sitting; Seah Kian Peng is re-elected Speaker. The five-year term runs from this day.

Restoration fee: S$50 (PEA s.43(8A)).