First tranche of GE2025 candidate expenses published, with highest spending being over $100,000

A total of 35 candidates who contested the May 3 General Election have declared their election expenses so far, with their combined spending coming up to $884,978.

On May 28, their election returns were made available on the Elections Department’s (ELD) website.

Election candidates here are required under the law to declare how much they spent and what the money was used for, to ensure accountability and transparency of campaign finances. Candidates from the 2025 General Election have until June 16 to do so.

Among those who have submitted their election expenses, average spending worked out to be $25,285 per candidate. But individual candidates’ expenses ranged widely – some did not spend a single cent, while one spent more than $100,000.

The 35 candidates who have submitted their returns include those from the PAP, PSP, National Solidarity Party (NSP), People’s Alliance for Reform (PAR), Red Dot United (RDU) and Singapore People’s Party (SPP).

Candidates – one from each party – from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), People’s Power Party (PPP) and Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) have submitted their election expenses, as have the two independent candidates – SMU law graduate Darryl Lo and retired businessman Jeremy Tan.

So far, no WP candidate has submitted his or her returns.

This means there are 176 candidates who either have not submitted their election expenses, or whose submissions have not yet been announced on the Government Gazette.

From this initial batch of returns, the PAP topped the list of average amount spent per candidate at $77,751, followed by the PSP at $32,303, and the NSP at $24,378. At the bottom of the list were RDU at $1,297, and PAR at $898.

There were seven candidates who declared no election expenses – RDU’s Mr Sharad Kumar, Mr David Foo and Mr Pang Heng Chuan, the SDP’s Mr Alec Tok, the SDA’s Mr Harminder Pal Singh, and the SPP’s Mr Lim Rui Xian and Mr Muhammad Norhakim.

The PPP’s Mr Samuel Lee declared election spending of $100, under the category of “other expenses”. In a TikTok post on May 27, Mr Lee said he had resigned from the PPP effective from May 23 to pursue new opportunities.

Meanwhile, Mr Tan, who contested Mountbatten, spent $16,075, while Mr Lo, who contested Radin Mas, spent $12,213. More than half of Mr Tan’s spending was on his sole rally at the Home of Athletics on May 1, while the bulk of Mr Lo’s spending went to non-online election advertising, which covers things like pamphlets, posters, banners and flags.

The top spender for now is the PAP’s Mr Goh Pei Ming at $104,085. More than half of this was spent on non-online election advertising.

The former Singapore Armed Forces chief of staff and his PAP Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC teammates were the only ones to win in a walkover on Nomination Day. In all, they spent a total of $388,756 this election.

The only other full team which has submitted its expenses is the NSP’s team for Sembawang GRC, which spent $121,888.

Besides their expenses, candidates also have to declare how much they received from donors.

Among the 35, only RDU’s Mr Ben Puah, who contested Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC, has declared donations received. He received a total of $280 from anonymous donors, who gave the money via six separate transactions on the PayNow digital payment platform that ranged from $10 to $100. He spent $109 this election.

Meanwhile, the RDU’s Madam Kala Manickam has declared disputed claims of $1,365, consisting of $404 in food expenses for candidates and volunteers, $66 in transport charges for volunteers, as well as $895 for the cost of printing additional fliers during the campaigning period.

According to the ELD’s website, such claims occur when “an election agent disputes any claim in respect of election expenses incurred by the candidate, and refuses or fails to pay the claim within the specified time period of 28 days”. The Straits Times has sent a query to the ELD.

When contacted, Madam Kala said the disputed claims were for expenses that the RDU declined to reimburse. She added that her election agent had advised her to file it under disputed claims.

“The party told me to raise petty cash to claim back my money, but when I submitted it after the election, they said the spending was not endorsed by the party. They also said I didn’t manage to bring in donations, so they did not reimburse me,” she said.

She added that she would bear the costs herself since she had run for elections to serve the country.

As with previous elections, candidates generally spent the most on non-online election advertising, which includes things like posters, banners and flags. The total spending in this category across the 35 candidates amounted to $516,761, or more than half of all declared election expenses so far.

Other big-ticket items included online election advertising expenses as well as election meeting expenses, which covers costs to hold rallies.

People who wish to inspect candidates’ election expenses can do so by logging into the ELD’s digital service using their Singpass.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.