General Election 2025 to fall on May 3
The writ of election was issued on April 15.
PHOTO: AsiaOne file
PUBLISHED ONApril 15, 2025 8:07 AMByHoon Jeng JeeThe writ of election for 2025 General Election has been issued today (April 15), with Polling Day to fall on May 3.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, on the advice of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, issued the writ today, soon after Parliament was dissolved.
Polling Day will be a public holiday.
Here is what comes next.
Nomination Day
On Nomination Day, the final line-up of candidates for each electoral division is revealed when they submit their nomination papers, election deposits, and certificates at an assigned centre.
The documents are submitted to the Returning Officer (RO), who is tasked with overseeing the impartial and smooth conduct of elections.
The current RO is Han Kok Juan, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. He was appointed on April 1, 2024.
Candidates must also make an election deposit before noon on Nomination Day.
Under the law, the election deposit amount is the fixed monthly allowance payable to an elected Member of Parliament.
At the last General Election, the deposit for each candidate was $13,500. It will be refunded if the candidate polls at least 12.5 per cent of the valid votes cast.
When all nomination documents are submitted by noon, candidates have 30 minutes to examine other applications and raise objections to the RO.
If the RO allows an objection against a candidate, he or she will not be eligible to contest in that election.
If more than one individual or group of candidates are successfully nominated for an electoral division, a notice of contested election is issued, indicating when Polling Day will occur.
All electoral divisions were contested in the previous two general elections.
Once Nomination Day ends, the campaigning begins.
Campaigning
The campaign period runs from after the notice of contested election is issued until the day before Polling Day.
Polling Day must take place between 10 and 56 days after the notice of contested election is published.
Based on recent elections, the campaign period has typically been nine days long.
During this period, candidates may organise rallies, broadcast election messages and publish their manifestos.
To hold rallies, candidates require permits from the commissioner of police.
The dates and venues for rallies are fixed by the police, and candidates may ballot for their desired slot.
Candidates may also publicly display banners, flags or posters and publish online election advertising (OEA).
Cooling-off Period
After the campaign period comes Cooling-off Period, where candidates are prohibited from campaigning for 24 hours.
First observed in the 2011 General Election, Cooling-off Period is meant to "give voters some time to reflect rationally on issues raised during the election before going to the polls", according to the ELD.
Material already in the public domain can remain, but OEA cannot be reposted or reshared for wider reach.
Polling Day
Finally, voters will cast their votes at their allocated polling stations from 8am to 8pm on Polling Day, a public holiday by law.
No campaigning is allowed on this day, but candidates may inspect polling stations.
From 8pm onwards, the ballot boxes are sealed and transported to counting stations, where the votes will be tallied.
A sample count is performed on a random bundle of 100 ballot papers at the start of the counting process to get an early indication of the possible outcome for an electoral division.
After midnight, final results are typically announced.
For electoral divisions with tight contests, vote counting can extend into the wee hours of the morning, as seen with West Coast GRC during the last General Election, where the PAP narrowly clinched its victory with 51.69 per cent of votes.
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