LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Local Government, Lands and Housing (Inche Abdul Hamid Bin Haji Jumat): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

I have the Governor's consent Sir, to proceed with this Bill. Sir, the Local Government Elections Bill is of its very nature complementary to the Local Government Bill in that while the latter Bill makes provision for the establishment of the City Council and District Councils, the purpose of this Bill is to provide for the elections of Councillors to those Councils and, in particular, to enable the registration of electors for the purposes of elections to the proposed Councils to take place. That is why these two Bills are introduced concurrently in the Legislative Assembly.

As the drafts of the relevant legislation stand at present, while the Local Government Bill sets out the qualifications and disqualifications relating to candidates for elections as Councillors, the Local Government Elections Bill sets out the qualifications and disqualifications of electors. Again, while the boundaries of the new local government areas are defined under the provisions of the Local Government Bill, the names and boundaries of electoral divisions within these local government areas and the sub-division of these electoral divisions into polling districts are made under the Local Government Elections Bill. Until the boundaries of the local government areas have been defined and approved, a Proclamation specifying the names and boundaries of the electoral divisions and a Gazette Notification specifying the polling districts cannot be made.

In the White Paper, Sir, it was pointed out that the McNeice Committee did not deal with the question of the franchise for local government electors as it was not included in its terms of reference, but Government has, however, given it considerable thought and proposes that:

"(a) the basis of the franchise for the proposed new City Council and District Councils should be universal adult suffrage qualified by a period of at least five years' residence in Singapore, the elector being required to be resident in the division in which he wishes to vote;

(b) registration of electors should be effected by a system of automatic registration based on identity cards."

This Bill accordingly makes provision for these two proposals. These are the two major changes in the Bill which, in the main, follows closely the provision of the Municipal Elections Ordinance, 1948, to be repealed on the enactment of the present Bill.

As stated in the Explanatory Note to the Bill,

"Clause 5 provides that any person who was not less than twenty-one years of age on, and has been ordinarily resident in the Colony for a period of not less than five years immediately prior to, 1st April in any year shall be entitled to have his name entered in the register of electors in the division in which he is resident that year."

It will thus be seen that the new franchise is different from the qualifications of City Council electors described under the Municipal Elections Ordinance, 1948. This means that the right to vote will be extended to a far greater number of the adult population resident in Singapore. Citizenship will not be a pre-requisite qualification.

Under the present Bill, the system of automatic registration of electors, now in force for Legislative Assembly elections, is to replace the former system of voluntary registration under the Municipal Elections Ordinance, 1948. The register will be prepared automatically from identity cards and provision is accordingly made for presuming that persons to whom identity cards have been issued before 1st April in any year are on that date ordinarily resident in the Colony. Provision is also made for particulars in the identity cards regarding age and addresses to be presumed to be accurate for purposes of preparation and revision of registers.

In the White Paper, it was proposed that plural voting should be permitted so as to allow a person living in one local government area to have a vote in another local government area in which he owns property if he registers himself voluntarily for the purpose. Therefore, a person living in one area and owning properties in all other four areas could exercise five votes in all, one in each local government area. This proposal has however been reconsidered and it was felt that the present Bill should not include any provision for such plural voting.

These then, Mr Speaker, are the general features of the Bill. It is the intention of this Government to commit this Bill immediately after the Second Reading to a Select Committee.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

Mr Nair: Mr Speaker, Sir, I have one plea to make with regard to this Bill and that is in clause 28 regarding deposits by candidates. I am making this plea on behalf of the prospective District Councillors and City Council candidates. 1 see that they are required to pay $250 deposit. I would suggest, Sir, that either the deposit in the case of these councillors be waived or, if there is any particular objection to that, to have about $50 or $100 instead of $250 deposit. I am aware, Sir, that deposits are usually waived in the case of some county and borough councils in the United Kingdom. It may be a new practice in Singapore but I would like the Government to give consideration to this suggestion when it goes to Select Committee.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Mr Speaker, Sir, there is only one point I wish to bring to the attention of the House on this Bill, namely, that it has made no provision whatsoever for the limitation of transport of candidates. Any man who has taken part in elections in Singapore knows that the availability of friends with free motor cars and free petrol is a very useful advantage in getting people to the polls to vote for a candidate. It is a principle in countries which profess a democratic system that factors such as the wealth of a candidate or the wealth of his friends are not allowed in any way to affect the result of an election.

Now, we have in this Bill a provision carried over from the old Municipal Elections Ordinance which says that no money shall be expended on transport. But the dodge is to get friends to provide not only free cars but also free petrol and free syces. I suggest that when this Bill goes to Select Committee, the Government should seriously consider putting in provisions to stop this reprehensible practice and to limit each candidate to a specified number of cars depending upon two things: the size of a constituency and the number of voters on the electoral register. In that way, the Government can ensure - and I am sure all honest democratic governments want to ensure - that there should be a free competition of opinions and candidates popularly and democratically elected.

The Member for Ulu Bedok (Inche Abdul Hamid Bin Haji Jumat) in the days before he became a Member for Ulu Bedok must have experienced great difficulty getting transport to get the voters of Ulu Bedok to the polls, particularly competing with other candidates who happened to be wealthier than he was. I am sure that in the next election, he would not like to undergo all the stresses and strains of worrying about the wealth of his opponents and their friends. We can do that by putting a proviso ensuring that every candidate is limited to the same number of cars.

Mr J. M. Jumabhoy: Mr Speaker, Sir, the suggestion by the Member for Tanjong Pagar to limit the candidates to a fixed number of cars is a very good one provided it could be carried out by our candidates in the right spirit in which, I hope, it is meant.

You will notice, Sir, that there is another clause in this Bill which says that electors are free to provide their own transport which presumably means that four or five electors can join together, hire a taxi and go to the polling stations. Therefore, if we provide a limit on the number of cars a candidate can use, obviously the way out is for the candidate's friends to band together and provide another hundred cars and say that it does not concern the candidate; that these cars are used by the electorate on their own volition and that the candidate has no say in it. Therefore, they can easily defeat the -

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: On a point of information, Sir.

Mr Speaker: Is the hon. Member giving way?

Mr J. M. Jumabhoy resumed his seat.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: I wonder if the Minister for Commerce and Industry is, aware that in England, during election time, it is an offence to carry any friend to a polling booth?

Mr J. M. Jumabhoy: Well, Sir, evidently here it is not so.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: We can make it so.

Mr J. M. Jumabhoy: Yes, then the hon. Member should propose an amendment to that clause.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew: We will, in Select Committee.

Mr J. M. Jumabhoy: I have nothing further to say. I hope that when the Bill goes to Select Committee he will put up an amendment.

Inche Abdul Hamid rose-

Mr Speaker: In reply?

Inche Abdul Hamid: In reply, Sir. The points raised by the Member for Seletar (Mr Nair) and the Member for Tanjong Pagar (Mr Lee Kuan Yew) will be considered by Government in Select Committee, not because the Member for Tanjong Pagar mentioned about my difficulties during the election in Ulu Bedok.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.