In Parliament today (16 Sep), WP MP Pritam Singh posed the following question to PM Lee with regard to the recent incident when empty ballot boxes were found in a school’s store room:
To ask the Prime Minister in light of the discovery of used election ballot boxes that were not disposed of in a proper manner:
(a) who was responsible for the lapse and what action has been taken against the person;
(b) whether these boxes were for the 2011 presidential election and, if so, whether there was any breach of section 37 of the Presidential Elections Act;
(c) whether there were any other ballot boxes or presidential election paraphernalia that were similarly mishandled in the course of the presidential election; and
(d) what role does the Elections Department play in ensuring that such episodes do not occur and what oversight responsibilities does the Elections Department have over their appointed contractors.
Surprisingly, it was Chan Chun Sing, the Minister for Social and Family Development, who stood in to reply on behalf of PM Lee even though he is not a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. Furthermore, this issue clearly comes under the Elections Department of PMO and not under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).
Chan Chun Sing said the discovery of empty ballot boxes used for the 2011 Presidential Election did not constitute a lapse in the election process. He stressed that there was a rigorous process to ensure the security of the vote and voting secrecy at each election.
Chan said there was also no break of the chain of custody of ballot papers from the polling station to the counting centre and from the counting centre to the Supreme Court where the ballot papers are maintained for safe custody for six months and then destroyed.
He said he has “directed the Elections Department” to look into ways to ensure that such an incident can be prevented in future to avoid undue alarm or confusion.
It’s not known under what authority Chan has to “direct” the Elections Department when, clearly, it is a department under PMO and not MSF [Link]:
“The Elections Department of Singapore (ELD) is a department under the Prime Minister’s Office. It has the responsibility of planning and preparing for, and managing the conduct of Presidential and Parliamentary elections and of any national referendum in Singapore. The Department has under its purview the Registry of Political Donations (RPD). The RPD administers the Political Donations Act, the objective of which is to prevent foreign interference in the domestic politics of Singapore through funding.”
Last month, used ballot boxes were found in a school in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC (‘Empty ballot boxes for PE 2011 found in school storeroom‘).
Chan said the fact that some boxes were found clearly suggested an oversight by working personnel involved in the collection of discarded material after polling.
Elections Department said they had outsourced the disposal of the used ballot boxes to a contractor. After they surfaced, Elections Department quickly made a police report.
“In this particular case, the emptied, disused boxes are non-controlled items. For the Elections Department, the priority is to ensure that all controlled items, for example ballot papers are properly accounted and this we have done so over the course of the election,” said Chan.
He said that following the incident, the Elections Department had gone back to check all 164 schools which were used as Counting Centres for the Presidential Election in 2011. Several more disused boxes were found in 5 schools which were used as counting centres.
He added that investigations by the Police so far show that there is no offence related to the tampering of the ballot boxes before and while in use.
*Article first appeared on www.TREmeritus.com