The Singapore Elections Department today announced that only one individual will be issued with both the Certificate of Eligibility and the Malay Community Certificate for the upcoming Presidential Election which is reserved for the Malay community.

According to the Department, for an individual to qualify as a candidate, he or she must receive both a Certificate of Eligibility from the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC), and a Community Certificate from the Community Committee (CC) stating that he or she belongs to the Malay community.

The Department said five individuals applied for a Certificate of Eligibility.

“Of these five individuals, three declared that they belonged to the Malay community and applied for Malay Community Certificates,” it said in a statement here.

For the Certificate of Eligibility, the PEC has decided to issue “one Certificate of Eligibility.”

As for Community Certificates, the CC referred all three applications for a Malay Community Certificate to the Malay Community Sub-Committee (MCSC), and the MCSC has concluded that “all three applicants belong to the Malay community.”

The CC would therefore, issue three Malay Community Certificates, it said.

As this Presidential Election is reserved for the Malay community, the CC rejected the two community declarations where the declarants did not declare themselves to be a member of the Malay community.

The Elections Department said it had notified all five individuals on the outcome of their applications.

“Reasons were also given to the unsuccessful applicants for a Certificate of Eligibility,” it said.

The statement said the PEC and the Elections Department would not, in the first instance, publish the names of the unsuccessful applicants or the reasons given to them.

“This is to give effect to the recommendation of the Constitutional Commission that unsuccessful applicants should not be disclosed to the public, to reduce the prospect of potential applicants being dissuaded from stepping forward to contest the elections.

“An unsuccessful applicant is free to publish the reasons given to him or her,” it said.

It was made to understand that the individual who will be issued with both the Certificate of Eligibility and the Malay Community Certificate will go through Nomination Day proceedings on Sept 13.

It was widely reported here that two potential candidates, businessmen Mohamed Salleh Marican and Farid Khan Kaim Khan’s applications were rejected for not meeting certain criteria, while Halimah Yacob believed to be the individual who had received both Certificates had invited her supporters on www.halimah.sg to join her on Nomination Day.

-- BERNAMA