Female voter wearing pineapple-patterned shirt allegedly barred from entering polling station

SINGAPORE: A female voter dressed in shirts adorned with pineapple patterns was allegedly barred from entering the polling station, with election officials requesting her to return home for a change of attire.

On Friday morning (1 September), a user on the social media platform Xiao Hongshu, going by the name “Purple Night,” shared a photograph depicting a woman wearing a pineapple-patterned shirt outside a polling station while attempting to cast her vote.

It is believed that she was denied entry by election officials and was instructed to return home and change her attire.

From the uploaded picture, it is evident that the woman was wearing a white shirt adorned with pineapple pattern.

Pineapple serves as the campaign symbol for Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a former senior minister from the People’s Action Party (PAP).

The individual who posted the photo on social media remarked, “Early in the morning… Auntie had to turn back and go home to change her clothes… No prize for guessing who auntie will vote for.”

The Elections Department (ELD) recently issued a reminder to voters, emphasizing the importance of refraining from wearing clothing, carrying bags, displaying badges, or using other items featuring a candidate’s logo or similar designs when visiting polling stations.

These items should also not have any wording that could be interpreted as supporting a particular candidate.

As voting is currently underway in the city-state of Singapore, citizens are tasked with electing their ninth president from a pool of three candidates: Mr Ng Kok Song (75), the former GIC investment chief; Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam (66), a former senior minister of the People’s Action Party; and Mr Tan Kin Lian (75), the former NTUC Income chief.

There are a total of 2,709,455 eligible voters in the updated voter rolls – an increase of over 55,000 people from the 2,653,942 electors in GE2020.

As per the updates provided by the Elections Department (ELD), by noon, a total of 1,406,182 Singaporeans had participated in casting their votes across the 1,264 polling stations located throughout the island.

This turnout represents approximately 52 per cent of the overall count of eligible electors.