The PDA

1. seeks to prevent foreigners from interfering in Singapore’s domestic politics through funding of candidates and political associations;
2. prohibits political associations and candidates from accepting donations except from permissible donors, and restricts the receipt of anonymous donations to less than $5,000 in total per reporting period; and

3. requires the following three groups of people to file donation reports with the Registrar, RPD:

   • political associations, which comprise all political parties, organisations whose objects or activities are to procure the election of candidates, and organisations whose objects or activities relate wholly or mainly to politics in Singapore and are gazetted as a political association under PDA;
   • any person who is or desires to be a candidate of any election and his election agents; and
   • donors who have made multiple small donations with an aggregate value of $10,000 or more to a political association in a calendar year.

	POLITICAL DONATIONS REGULATIONS

The Regulations

1. spell out the procedures for filing of donation reports by the three affected groups of people mentioned above and surrendering of anonymous donations;
2. set out the procedures for the application, issue and collection of the political donation certificate, which any individual seeking election to Parliament or the office of President must produce to the Returning Officer on Nomination Day in order to be validly nominated as a candidate; and
3. require receipts to be issued for cash donations received by political associations, candidates or election agents.

	POLITICAL DONATIONS HANDBOOK

The RPD has prepared a handbook to help political associations, candidates and their election agents comply with the provisions of the PDA and its Regulations.

  Political Donations Handbook (pdf file: 692 KB)

	POLITICAL DONATIONS FORMS

Political associations

  Donation Report By Political Association (pdf file: 1.2 MB)
  Declaration (pdf file: 17.2 KB)

Donors

  Donation Report By Donor (pdf file: 16.4 KB)
  Donor's Declaration (pdf file: 17.3 KB)

Surrendering of Donations

  Surrender of Donations (pdf file: 94 KB)

Hard copy forms are also obtainable from the RPD.

The Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021 (FICA) was passed by Parliament on 4 Oct 2021 and assented to by the President on 29 Oct 2021. Provisions related to countering foreign interference by hostile information campaigns came into force on 7 Jul 2022. The provisions related to Politically Significant Persons (PSPs) came into force on 29 Dec 2023. At the same time, the Political Donations Act 2000 (PDA) was repealed, and the existing obligations under the PDA was ported over to FICA.

FICA aims to counteract foreign interference in our domestic politics in the interest of Singapore’s national security, and counter hostile information campaigns mounted by foreign actors. It introduces directions to deal with harmful online communications activity and countermeasures to be imposed on the following PSPs, who are directly involved in our political processes:

• political parties;
• political office holders;
• senior officials of a political party (e.g. member of the executive committee of a political party);
• Members of Parliament (MPs), including Non-Constituency MPs and Nominated MPs;
• election candidates; and
• election agents.

The provisions related to PSPs largely retain the existing political donations requirements under the PDA for all PSPs with some additional countermeasures. To avoid any overlap, the PDA had been repealed and the existing requirements under the PDA were ported over to FICA when the provisions related to PSPs under FICA came into effect. Under FICA, PSPs are subject to the following requirements and restrictions:

1. PSPs must report single donations of $10,000 or more from permissible donors, and multiple donations from the same permissible donor that amount to $10,000 or more in any calendar year;
2. PSPs are not allowed to receive anonymous donations beyond the cap of $5,000 during the relevant period or in any calendar year;
3. no foreigners will be allowed to volunteer for the political activities of PSPs;
4. PSPs must maintain a separate bank account to receive political donations, so that there are proper records of monies relating to their political activities; and
5. PSPs must disclose affiliations with any foreign entity (including declaration on migration benefits).

	COMPETENT AUTHORITIES

A different competent authority may be appointed for different provisions under FICA and for different times. On top of regulating political donations, the competent authority will have powers, including to issue various directives against harmful foreign communications activity.

For candidates and their election agents

The Registrar, Registry of Political Donations is the competent authority responsible for administering obligations on candidates and their election agents during Presidential and Parliamentary elections under FICA. Information on reporting requirements in relation to candidates and their election agents will be updated on the Presidential Candidates and Parliamentary Candidates webpages accordingly to guide prospective candidates and their election agents prior to the respective election. For further information on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on political donations relating to candidates and their election agents, refer to the Candidate FAQs webpage for Presidential candidates and Candidate FAQs webpage for Parliamentary candidates.

For other PSPs

Likewise, the Registrar, Registry of Foreign and Political Disclosures is the competent authority responsible for administering obligations on all other PSPs under FICA. For more details on FICA obligations for all other PSPs, refer to the Introduction to Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA) webpage at the Ministry of Home Affairs website. For any query related to FICA obligations on other PSPs, email to MHA_RFPD@mha.gov.sg.