Newly appointed Returning Officer’s perceived fairness marred by past controversy in AHPETC allegations and Ridout Road Saga

Yesterday, the Election Department announced the appointment of Mr Han Kok Juan, the Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), as the new Returning Officer for the nation’s elections, effective April 1.

This appointment means Mr Han will oversee the upcoming General Election, which is speculated to possibly occur as early as June this year, although the deadline is not until November 2025.

Before his tenure as Director General of CAAS in August 2021, Mr Han served as Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Senior Deputy Director-General at CAAS. Additionally, he held positions as Deputy Director at the Ministry of Health and Director (Social Programmes) at the Ministry of Finance.

Interestingly, in 2015, Mr Han was the Senior Director (Housing) at the Ministry of National Development (MND), where he played a significant role in the MND’s series of allegations against Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council (APHETC) and its town councillors.

These allegations, concerning the profiteering of contractors, led to a special audit by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO), the appointment of independent accountants and an independent panel, and ultimately, the lawsuit against leaders of the Workers’ Party in 2017. However, the Court of Appeal eventually dismissed the majority of these allegations in 2022, but not before having the WP leaders incur millions of legal fees.

In his 2015 letter, Mr Han alleged gross profiteering by FM Solutions & Services (FMSS) at the expense of AHPETC. Contrary to his claims, the Court of Appeal concluded in 2022 that neither the town councillors nor the employees owed fiduciary duties to AHTC or Sengkang Town Council, which held the previous Punggol East SMC, ruling that they had acted in good faith in awarding contracts without an open tender.

Mr Han’s intriguing past extends further; he was involved in the recent Ridout Road saga, concerning the rental of colonial properties by Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.

As the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Law in January 2017, Mr Han provided the Law Minister with a list of public properties available for rent. From this list, 26 Ridout Road was selected—a property not accessible to the general public due to its condition.

Despite questions about the appropriateness of this approach during a parliamentary session, Mr Shanmugam defended it, stating that Mr Han would typically inform the permanent secretary, who, along with the senior admin service officers, could escalate any concerns to the Head of Civil Service or the Prime Minister.

However, no issues were apparently raised until the matter became public through a blog post by Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam, Reform Party’s Secretary General, followed by the issuance of ministerial statements in response.

Besides announcing polling dates and election results, it’s important to note the new powers granted to the Returning Officer through last year’s amendments to the Presidential Election Act and Parliamentary Election Act.

These amendments empower the Returning Officer to direct content publishers, including individuals and social media companies, to remove election advertising and restrict access to such content for Singaporean users.

Given Mr Han’s history, there is room for speculation regarding how he will exercise the new powers granted to him and perform the duties in the upcoming General Election.