7.53% of registered voters did not vote in GE2025, lowest turnout in recent years

7.53% of registered voters did not vote in GE2025, according to ELD

The 2025 General Election (GE2025) saw the lowest turnout in a GE in recent years, with 7.53% of registered voters not voting.

This was announced by the Elections Department in a media release on Sunday (4 May), the day after Polling Day.

197,745 did not vote in GE2025

According to the ELD, there were a total of 2,627,026 registered electors in all the electoral divisions contested in GE2025.

However, 2,429,281 votes were cast in Singapore, with 42,829 votes rejected among this number.

That means voter turnout was 92.47%, with 197,745 voters failing to vote.

The figure does not take into account overseas votes, which have not been added yet.

GE2025 lowest in recent years

The GE2025 turnout was a significant slide from that of the Covid-19-affected GE2020, in which 95.81% of the 2,651,435 registered electors voted.

The last non-socially distanced GE in Singapore was in 2015, which saw a voter turnout of 93.70%.

In GE2011, 93.06% of the registered electors voted, while 94.01% voted in GE2006.

To see a turnout closer to this year’s, we had to look all the way back to GE2001, when 92.61% of registered electors voted.

Low turnout might matter more in closely fought constituencies

While the number of voters who did not vote might not matter too much in constituencies where the winning margin was large, it may have mattered more in the closely fought ones.

For example, in Jalan Kayu SMC, Mr Ng Chee Meng of the People’s Action Party (PAP) won by just 806 votes.

This is compared with the 1,832 voters who did not vote, though it’s not possible to know how they would have voted.

In Tampines GRC, the Workers’ Party team lost by 6,379 votes, but 9,549 people did not vote.

Those did not vote in GE2025 may have been overseas

On Reddit, a number of netizens attributed the low voter turnout in GE2025 to the timing, having been scheduled on the weekend after Labour Day (1 May), creating a “pseudo long weekend” for those who took leave on 2 May.

The tendency of Singaporeans to go on an overseas holiday over the weekend could have accounted for the higher turnout in GE2020, which was held amid travel restrictions due to the pandemic.

One Redditor suggested that future elections should be announced earlier so voters have more time to change their travel plans.

Also read: GE2025: Some opposition parties criticise timing of election, say timeline is too short

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Featured image from MS News.