GE2020: TV schedule for programmes and party political broadcasts released

Physical rallies are a no go in view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and in its place, candidates will have to reach out to voters via political broadcasts on national TV, radio, and internet channels. 

Mediacorp will be handling the broadcasting task of providing General Election 2020 coverage in all four official languages across its platforms, including TV, social media and on-demand channels. 

On Nomination Day tomorrow (June 30), Mediacorp will kick things off as early as 11am with news programmes simulcasted on CNA’s TV and radio channel as well as its YouTube and Facebook pages. 

The nine nomination centres will see live-streaming broadcasts take place from 12.30pm onwards. News programmes on Channel 5 and Channel 8 will be extended from tomorrow until Polling Day (July 10) to provide extensive reporting on the general election. 

Screentime will be allowed for political broadcasts from each party, which will begin on Thursday night. From July 2 to July 9, Singaporeans will be able to watch candidates speak during prime time on television, while special constituency political broadcasts will be arranged so all candidates have a chance to address voters on TV.

Broadcasts for each single-member constituency will last for three minutes, while that for a group representation constituency will be 12 or 15 minutes depending on whether it is a four or five-member GRC.

Candidates can choose to speak in any of the four official languages of English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil — dialects are not allowed. 

ilyas@asiaone.com