Singaporeans head to the polls today (1 Sep) to vote for their next president.
As polling stations opened at 8am, some early birds have already cast their votes.
The long morning queues at some polling stations across the country prompted the Elections Department (ELD) to release a statement at 8.40am.
In the press release, the ELD advised voters to arrive at polling stations later in the day.
Though it did not say why, some voters noted that the long queues were due to a system issue.
At 8.40am on Polling Day, the ELD issued a press release regarding the queue situation at the polling stations.
It noted that there was “queue build-up at some polling stations” at the start of the polls.
Hence, the ELD advised voters to head to the polling stations later since voting will last until 8pm.
They particularly recommended going in the afternoon as that’s when “the queues are usually shorter”.
Those who wish to check the queue situation at their polling station before heading down can do so on the ELD website.
Some voters have taken to social media to document their experience in the morning queues.
One TikTok user observed that there was already a long queue two minutes before the polls even opened.
@hotyogalover Vote wisely #singapore #singaporepresidentialelection #singaporepresidentialelection2023 #pollingday2023 ♬ original sound – hotyogalover
In the comments section, they noted that their polling station had a “systems issue”.
As a result, they took three times longer to complete the process compared to others next to them.
Others on Twitter have also reported on the “delayed start” and crawling queues.
Source: Twitter
At 8.45am, one voter noted slow-moving queues due to technical issues at their polling station.
Due to the hiccup, “backup manual processes” were deployed.
Several voters also wrote to Shin Min Daily News to complain about the situation.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the ELD noted that the queue situation has gotten better at most polling stations as of 10am.
“The technical issues with the e-registration system are progressively being resolved,” it said.
Also read: Singapore 2023 Presidential Candidates’ Symbols Explained, Including Tharman’s Pineapple
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook.
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