SINGAPORE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Chief Secretary (Mr W. A. C. Goode): Sir, I move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This Bill, Sir, is entirely a formal matter. In section 5 of the Singapore Legislative Assembly Elections Ordinance, it is provided that, for the purposes of preparing an electoral roll, an identity card shall be accepted as evidence, unless the contrary is shown, of a person's residence in Singapore, of his age and of the constituency in which he resides. Under section 10 of that same Ordinance, the authority who reports changes of address to the Electoral Registration bureau is the Commissioner for National Registration. Those provisions are, of course, part of the machinery which we have here of compiling our electoral rolls automatically from identity cards.

When the Singapore Legislative Assembly Elections Ordinance was enacted, the system of identity cards, of national registration, was carried out under the Emergency (Registration) Regulations. As the House will be aware, Sir, those Emergency Regulations have now lapsed and, in order to continue the system of identity cards, a new Ordinance was enacted - the Registration of Persons Ordinance, 1955. The purpose of this Bill is merely to substitute in the appropriate places in the Ordinance a reference to the Registration of Persons Ordinance, 1955, in place of the present reference to Emergency Regulations which are no longer in force. Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.