Overseas votes swing 76.2% in favor of Tharman in 2023 Presidential Election
Overseas votes for the 2023 Presidential Election revealed a pronounced lean towards Tharman Shanmugaratnam, with him securing 76.2% of the counted votes. \n \nThis strong overseas backing nudged his winning percentage up by 0.01%, further solidified the support that Tharman has as the Singapore’s ninth president.
SINGAPORE: The Elections Department at 11 Novena Rise today released the tallies for the overseas votes cast in the 2023 Presidential Election, revealing a pronounced preference for Tharman Shanmugaratnam among Singaporean citizens abroad.
On 2 September, Mr Tharman was pronounced the successor to Singapore’s presidential office, marking his journey as the ninth president of Singapore.
From the 6,649 registered overseas voters:
- 2,454 of 3,217 voters participated at the ten designated overseas polling stations.
- Out of 3,432 registered postal voters, 2,997 successfully downloaded their postal ballots. However, only 1,345 met the 11th September 2023 deadline and were counted. A notable 1,652 ballots (55%) were unfortunately rejected due to late arrival.
In the overseas count, Tharman Shanmugaratnam clinched a significant 76.2% of the 3,799 votes. Ng Kok Song trailed behind with 15.7%, and Tan Kin Lian managed to secure 7.7%.
When merged with the local figures from 1 September 2023, the total vote count for the 2023 Presidential Election rose to 2,534,711, inclusive of 50,230 rejected votes.
This turnout corresponds to 93.55% of the 2,709,407 registered electors.
A breakdown of the cumulative valid votes indicates:
- Ng Kok Song: 390,636 votes (15.72%)
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam: 1,749,261 votes (70.41%)
- Tan Kin Lian: 344,584 votes (13.87%)
Although Tharman Shanmugaratnam had already displayed a strong lead with 70.40% of the domestic votes, the overseas votes nudged his winning percentage up by 0.01%.
