QUALIFICATIONS OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

A person is qualified to be a candidate for election as a Member of Parliament (MP) if he:

1. is a citizen of Singapore;
2. is at least 21 years old on Nomination Day;
3. is registered as an elector in a current Register of Electors;
4. is resident in Singapore on Nomination Day;
5. has been resident in Singapore for a total period of at least 10 years before Nomination Day;
6. is not subject to any of the disqualifications specified in Article 45 of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Constitution); and
7. possesses a sufficient degree of proficiency in spoken English, Malay, Mandarin or Tamil and is able to read and write at least one of the said languages (unless incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause), so that he can take an active part in the proceedings of Parliament.

	ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FOR CANDIDATES OF GROUP REPRESENTATION CONSTITUENCIES

An electoral division that is declared to be a Group Representation Constituency (GRC) will be represented by a group of a fixed number (between three to six) of MPs. A GRC will be designated as a GRC where one of the MPs in the group must be from the Malay community or a GRC where one of the MPs must be from the Indian or other minority communities.

There are additional qualifications for persons seeking election to be MPs of a GRC:

1. the candidates in a group contesting in an election in a GRC must be either members of the same political party standing for election for that political party, or independent candidates standing as a group; and
2. at least one member of the group must consider himself as belonging to the relevant minority community and be generally accepted as a member by the relevant minority community, as certified by the Malay Community Committee or the Indian and Other Minority Communities Committee.

	DISQUALIFICATIONS FROM BEING A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

A person is disqualified from being a candidate for election as an MP if, on Nomination Day, he:

1. is of unsound mind;
2. is an undischarged bankrupt;
3. is the holder of a whole time office in the service of the government (this includes civil servants, whether working in the government or seconded to work in statutory boards, and persons seconded to work in the government);
4. did not file returns respecting election expenses and declarations as required by law at any previous Parliamentary or Presidential election;
5. has been convicted of an offence by a court in Singapore or any foreign country^[1] and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than one year or to a fine of not less than $10,000 (or its equivalent in a foreign currency when sentenced), for which he has not been pardoned;
6. has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of, or exercised rights of citizenship in, another country or has declared allegiance to another country; or
7. is disqualified under the Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 or Presidential Elections Act 1991 on account of having committed an election offence.

[1] Where a person is convicted by a foreign court, the offence must also be one that is punishable by a court in Singapore had the offence been committed locally.