Singapore votes: Polling centres close, over 2 million cast their votes

More than two million Singaporeans have voted in the country's general election, polling for which was conducted from 8am to 8pm today, according to the Elections Department.

For the first time in this GE, the department will be making public the results of sample counts, once the counting of ballots begins.

This will enable the public an early indication of the result in most constituencies.

The sample count will be carried out at the start of the counting process at each of the 163 counting centres throughout the city state.

The first sample counts are expected in less than an hour of the close of polls.

Up to 2.46 million people in the city-state are eligible to vote by 8pm in the first general election since independence in 1965, in which every single seat is being contested.

Prime Minister and People's Action Party (PAP) secretary-general Lee Hsien Loong and wife, Ho Ching, voted at the Alexandra Primary School in Tanjong Pagar.

Tanjong Pagar, a stronghold of the PAP during the years of Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who died in March this year, is now being contested.

A total of 4,868 Singaporeans overseas are also eligible to vote. They had to cast their ballots by Thursday.