Polling Day on May 7

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GE2011

Apr 20, 2011

Polling Day on May 7

Time is ripe for me to ask voters for fresh mandate, says PM

By Chua Lee Hoong, Political Editor

National Soldiarity Party (NSP) leaders and candidates holding a meeting at their party office the evening after the polling day is announced. -- ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW

THE date of the long-anticipated general election was finally disclosed yesterday when the President dissolved Parliament and issued the Writ of Election.

Nomination Day will be on Wednesday, April 27, and Polling Day, on Saturday, May 7.

For the first time, there will be a 'Cooling-off Day', on May 6, a day when political parties will be barred by law from campaigning so as to give voters time to reflect coolly and rationally.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told The Straits Times why he decided to call the general election now: 'All the parties have been preparing for these elections for some time. I believe the time is now ripe for me to ask voters for a fresh mandate to take Singapore forward for the next five years.'

Mr Lee, who became prime minister in 2004, will be leading the People's Action Party (PAP) into battle for the second time as prime minister, the first being in 2006, when the PAP secured 66.6 per cent of the votes then, with 47 of the 84 seats contested.

Opposition parties have indicated that they will contest at least 71 of the 87 seats - its biggest turnout since 1988, when only 11 of the 81 seats were uncontested.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.