Portrait of the new President of Singapore

Former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam won a landslide victory in Singapore's presidential election on September 1, with 70.4% of the vote.

Meanwhile, the two remaining candidates, Mr. Ng Kok Song, former Chief Investment Officer of GIC, and Mr. Tan Kin Lian, former CEO of NTUC Income, received 15.72% and 13.88% of the votes respectively.

Mr Tharman will be sworn in as Singapore's ninth President on September 14, after incumbent President Halimah Yacob's term ends the day before.

The official results of the Singapore presidential election on September 1, 2023, showed that Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam won a resounding victory. Source: Straits Times

Even before the official results were announced by the Elections Department of Singapore (ELD) at 00:22 on September 2, the winner of the "three-horse" race to become the 9th President of the "lion island" was clear.

Sample vote results released at around 10:40 p.m. on September 1 showed Mr. Tharman leading with 70 percent of the vote, while Mr. Ng and Mr. Tan followed with 16 percent and 14 percent of the vote, respectively.

Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 66, is an economist . An Indian-born Singaporean, Mr. Shanmugaratnam officially launched his presidential campaign last month with a pledge to develop the country's culture to keep the Southeast Asian nation a "bright spot" in the world.

Mr Tharman entered politics in 2001. He has served in the public sector and ministerial positions in Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) for more than two decades.

He also has experience working in government and with Singapore's foreign exchange reserves, estimated at more than S$2 trillion.

Mr. Tharman served as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 2011 to 2019. He resigned from all public sector positions and stopped all political activities in July this year to run for President.

He is married to Jane Yumiko Ittogi and has four children.

Speaking to the media at Taman Jurong mall shortly after the sample vote results were released, Mr Tharman thanked Singaporeans for closely following the issues and participating calmly throughout the presidential election period, as well as his fellow candidates for “devoting all their efforts and energies to their campaigns and making this a worthy race”.

“This vote – it’s not just a vote for me, it’s a vote for Singapore’s future, a future of optimism and unity,” he said. “That’s really it. My campaign is about optimism and unity, and I believe that’s what Singaporeans want.”

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his wife Jane Yumiko Ittogi at Taman Jurong Mall after the results of the sample ballot were announced, September 1, 2023. Photo: CNA

Sample vote counts show that voters overlooked political differences when voting for Mr Tharman in the September 1 presidential election, said Associate Professor Eugene Tan from the Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Law.

“The fact that more than two-thirds of Singaporeans voted for Mr Tharman (according to the sample vote count) means that he will receive votes from voters across the political spectrum, even though this is not a political contest. More importantly, this is truly a unity of Singaporeans,” Associate Professor Eugene Tan said on Channel News Asia’s special television programme on the country’s presidential election.

The sample count is based on a sampling of 100 ballots from each of the 1,264 polling stations for this election and is conducted when counting begins immediately after polls close at 8 p.m.

The numbers are said to be a rough representation of the likely outcome of the election, with previous sample counts typically having a confidence level of 95%, plus or minus 4 percentage points.

This is the third time Singaporeans have voted for their President since the democratically elected presidency was introduced in the “lion island” in 1991. The first competitive elections like this year were held in 1993 and in 2011.

ELD initiated sample ballot counting in the 2015 General Election to prevent unnecessary speculation and reliance on unofficial sources of information, before all votes were counted and final results were announced .

Minh Duc (According to CNA, Straits Times, NDTV)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/chan-dung-tan-tong-thong-singapore-a624535.html