‘Blatant disregard’ for Cooling-Off Day rules, devices seized as part of probe: ELD, Police
(Yahoo file photo)
“Deliberate and serious breaches” of the rules under the Parliamentary Elections Act (PEA) happened during the 2016 Bukit Batok By-Election, said a joint statement by the Singapore Police Force and Elections Department (ELD) on Wednesday (1 June).
As part of the investigations, the statement explained, “The Police need to examine for evidentiary purposes electronic devices used to publish the online postings. As such, these devices had to be seized.”
Last week, police reports were filed against sociopolitical website The Independent Singapore (TISG) and two individuals - activist Teo Soh Lung and blogger Roy Ngerng - for allegedly breaching “election advertising” regulations on Cooling-Off Day (6 May) and Polling Day (7 May).
Both Teo and Ngerng had their personal electronic devices seized by the police.
On Wednesday, lawyer Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss posted two videos on her Facebook page showing what she said were police officers entering Teo’s home and confiscating her mobile phone, laptop and desktop computers.
Lawyer Remy Choo Zheng Xi also wrote on his Facebook page that he saw seven or eight police officers seizing Teo’s equipment, and that she was “visibly shaken by the entire spectacle”.
Ngerng also wrote on Facebook that he had spent “nearly eight hours” being interrogated by the police, and that they had taken his mobile phone and asked for his passwords to his phone, laptop, Facebook and blog.
The parties in question had published several online articles and postings that may be tantamount to election advertising on Cooling-Off Day, which is prohibited, said the Elections Department (ELD).
“Given the blatant disregard of the PEA in the 2016 Bukit Batok By-Election, the Assistant Returning Officer decided to make police reports so that the Police could investigate,” said the statement.
The joint police and ELD statement also said, “The rules relating to Cooling-Off Day have been in place since 2011. In the various elections since GE2011 right up to GE2015, there have been some breaches of the Cooling-Off Day rules. The approach that has been taken has been to give warnings in respect of these breaches. In some of the cases, the breaches were found to be unintentional.”
The Workers’ Party also expressed concern about the way the investigations were conducted on the alleged violations of Cooling-Off Day regulations.
“We understand from the public record that other individuals or entities who were reported for similar violations in the past were not known to have faced the same lengthy interviews, and searches and seizures of personal equipment.
“We urge the authorities to ensure that consistency and proportionality are applied to all investigations, as these are key to maintaining confidence in Singapore’s law enforcement organisations and legal system,” wrote the Party in a statement on Wednesday.
