This piece is part of MS Explains, a segment where we provide clarity to common or key topics, making them easier to digest.
Being a leader of a country is a mammoth task that not just anyone can undertake.
In Singapore, not many have qualified as presidential candidates — with two rejected applicants in the previous election.
To even be considered, the ideal candidate has to fulfil a slew of requirements apart from being an upstanding citizen.
We look at what it takes to even run for the elections.
Before even running for President, every presidential hopeful must first get the stamp of approval from the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC).
As set out in the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, the committee comprises six members who can be considered experts in their respective fields.
This year, Mr Lee Tzu Yang heads the committee as its Chairman.
The PEC then assesses whether the presidential candidate fulfils the following criteria:
While this is already an extensive list, the requirements don’t stop there.
For those in the public sector, they must have held office as one of the following for at least three years:
Either that, or they could have served as the Chief Executive of an entity specified in the Fifth Schedule.
According to the Ministry of Finance, some examples of these companies are Temasek and the Housing Development Board (HDB).
At the last presidential elections in 2017, only Madam Halimah Yacob received the Certificate of Eligibility.
Source: Halimah Yacob on Facebook
She was also the only candidate who had a background in public service.
Before becoming President, Madam Halimah was a Speaker of Parliament and a member of parliament (MP) for Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC).
In 2001, TODAY highlighted Madam Halimah as one of the new faces in that year’s elections.
With a political career that spanned well over a decade, she fulfilled the public sector requirements for a presidential candidate nicely.
Meanwhile, private sector hopefuls who aim to run for president have to fulfil a different set of criteria.
Similar to the public sector candidate, the private sector individual must have served as a Chief Executive for at least three years.
Additionally, the company they’re leading must have at least S$500 million in shareholder equity.
The company must also have made a profit after tax the entire time that they’re the chief.
This year, Mr George Goh has made headlines as the potential presidential candidate from the private sector.
The Straits Times (ST) reported that Ossia International averaged about S$50 million in shareholder’s equity between 2021 and 2023.
However, Mr Goh’s team revealed that when put together, all of his companies have a market capitalisation value of S$3.15 billion.
Unfortunately, though, the odds may not be in Mr Goh’s favour.
In 2017, businessmen and presidential hopefuls Mr Farid Khan and Mr Salleh Marican both failed to meet the private sector criteria.
Mr Farid Khan, then 62 years old, was the chairman of Bourbon Offshore Asia Pacific.
Source: @straits_times on Twitter
In 2017, ST reported that the firm had a shareholder equity of around S$413 million (US$300 million).
Despite being the director of “several other companies“, one of which is Greenship Holdings, he still did not meet the criteria.
Meanwhile, the then 67-year-old Mr Salleh Marican was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Second Chance Properties.
Source: @ChannelNewsAsia on Twitter
His firm had a reported equity of between S$254.3 million and S$263.25 million over the last three financial years.
TODAY reported that Mr Marican shared his letter of rejection with the media. It said:
The Committee was unable to satisfy itself that (Mr Marican) had the experience and ability that was comparable to the experience and ability of a person who had served as the chief executive of a typical company with at least S$500 million in shareholders’ equity and who satisfied Article 19(4)(a) of the Constitution in relation to such service.
Meanwhile, Mr Khan declined to reveal his letter.
As it turns out, the bar for presidential hopefuls in the private sector was not always this high.
In 2016, TODAY reported that the criteria was made stricter from S$100 million paid-up capital threshold to S$500 million in shareholder’s equity.
To justify the increase, the commission highlighted that presidential candidates must have the financial know-how in handling large sums of money.
After all, one of the President’s core duties is to safeguard the nation’s reserves and to scrutinise the Government’s withdrawals.
Source: Halimah Yacob on Facebook
Despite the stricter criteria for presidential candidates from the private sector, the bar still remains achievable.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question last month, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing shared that more than 1,200 companies have an average shareholders’ equity at or exceeding S$500 million.
On the other hand, 50 public-service positions meet the public sector requirement.
However, seeing that only Mr Goh has stepped up to challenge Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, not many seem to be keen on running for President.
After all, they will have some big shoes to fill.
Apart from their ceremonial and diplomatic duties, Singapore’s President has a key role to play in the country’s fiscal matters.
According to the President of the Republic of Singapore website, the President has the power to veto Government budgets and key public appointments, should a need arise.
Nonetheless, it’s still early days and we can only wait to see if Singaporeans will have to head to the polls.
Featured image adapted from MINDEF Singapore, for illustration purposes only.
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