PAP’s Nee Soon GRC team suspends ‘iPad’ contest
The Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency (GRC) has suspended a contest that offered residents a chance to win an iPad, following news that Parliament has been dissolved.
A Channel NewsAsia report on Wednesday questioned if the People's Action Party's (PAP) new Nee Soon GRC team's outreach effort had contravened election rules.
Potential PAP candidate for the area, Lim Wee Kiak, told Yahoo! Singapore, "Although it (the contest) does not contravene the election laws, we decided to suspend the contest during the election period and resume after the GE (General Election) so as not to complicate matters since there is so much interest in the website now."
The contest, which was launched on 3 April, offered residents a chance to win an iPad if they could name the five "familiar" PAP faces or colour the PAP logo that appeared on www.neesoon.org.
Dr Lim said, the team had checked the law before the contest was launched. "There is no breach of any election rules".
"The contest suspension was announced yesterday shortly after we received the news on parliament dissolution," he said.
According to the Parliamentary Elections Act, which came into effect once the Writ of Election was issued on Tuesday, campaigning can only start after Nomination closes. Nomination Day will be held next Wednesday, 27 April.
However, the Elections Department told MediaCorp the law does not clearly spell out if this particular initiative constitutes Internet election advertising.
On Wednesday morning, an announcement on the Nee Soon website said the contest, scheduled to end on 27 April, has been suspended with immediate effect on Tuesday as Parliament has been dissolved.
"We will resume the contest, on the same terms, after the GE," the announcement read.
Dr Lim described the initiative as an "outreach programme" for residents to know what is happening in their ward and to get to know the candidates better.
It is a contest to get the public to visit the website, and the team is not giving out freebies to entice voters to vote for the party, he said.
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