Counting
At the close of poll, Presiding Officers at the various polling stations seal the ballot boxes in the presence of candidates and their polling agents. Candidates may also place their own seals on the ballot boxes. The ballot boxes are then transported under police escort to the designated counting centre. The process of vote counting is decentralised for efficiency. In the 2015 General Election, the Elections Department set up 163 counting centres throughout Singapore.
Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore
Sealed ballot boxes arriving at a counting centre for General Election, 1988.
Since the 2015 General Election, candidates or their polling agents are allowed to board the buses transporting the marked ballot papers to the counting centres. They are able to witness the safe custody of ballot boxes being transported between electoral premises.
At the counting centre, candidates and their counting agents may inspect all the ballot boxes again to ascertain that all ballot boxes are accounted for, that no extra ballot boxes are present and that the seals on all the ballot boxes are intact and have not been tampered with. The seals are then broken and the ballot boxes opened. The ballot papers are poured out, mixed, sorted and counted.
Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore
Election officials pouring out ballot papers at counting centre for Legislative Assembly Election, 1963.
Computers were deployed for the first time in the 1991 General Election to aid in the tabulation of election results.
Since the 2015 General Election, the Elections Department released sample counts to give an early indication of the possible outcome on Counting Night, and helped to prevent speculation and misinformation from unofficial sources while counting was underway.
After the election results are announced by the Returning Officer, the ballot papers and other official documents are placed in depository boxes and sealed. This procedure is witnessed by the candidates and their counting agents. They are also invited to affix their seals on the depository boxes. The boxes are then brought under police escort to the Supreme Court where they would be kept for six months before being destroyed.
