SINGAPORE, June\u00a023 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Singapore today dissolved Parliament for a general election on July 10, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong saying the country can a hold \u201ca proper and safe election\u201d as the COVID-19 situation was \u201crelatively stable\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nomination has been set for June 30, according to the\u00a0Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Halimah Yacob, on the advice of Lee, had dissolved Parliament and issued the writ of election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon after the dissolution of Parliament, the Elections Department announced that polling will be on July 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current government is approaching the end of its five-year term. Under the constitution, elections must be held at the latest by April 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That is less than a year away,” said Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“An election now \u2013 when things are relatively stable \u2013 will clear the decks, and give the new government a fresh five-year mandate,” said Lee, adding that “it can then focus on this national agenda and the difficult decisions it will have to make and to carry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee noted that Singapore is not the first to hold an election during the COVID-19 pandemic as other countries have done so, such as South Korea, Taiwan and several European countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With our arrangements and precautions in place, I am confident we can hold a proper and safe election,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singapore’s COVID-19 infection tally stands at 42,432 cases as of today, the vast majority being foreign workers living in dormitories. The first COVID-19 case was detected on Jan 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The republic has so far classified 1,824 of its cases as community-linked, 581 as imported cases and 39,908 involving foreign workers in dorms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 84 per cent of the total number of patients have fully recovered and been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, 26 people have died in the city-state from complications due to COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, June\u00a023 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Singapore today dissolved Parliament for a general election on July 10, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong saying the country can a hold \u201ca proper and safe election\u201d as the COVID-19 situation was \u201crelatively stable\u201d. Nomination has been set for June 30, according to the\u00a0Prime Minister\u2019s Office. President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":72399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,297],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80301"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}