SINGAPORE – More than $9 million was spent by candidates on the July general election, according to expenses submitted to the Elections Department (ELD).
Candidates from the People’s Action Party spent a total of $6.97 million on the 93 seats they contested, while the expenses of the 10 opposition parties contesting these seats totalled $2.16 million.
In all, around $2 million more was spent on this year’s electoral contest than the $7.1 million in the 2015 polls.
But candidates still spent significantly under the maximum $4 per voter that is allowed, with the biggest spender – the PAP – clocking expenses of $2.63 per voter.
The parties that spent the most after the PAP are the Workers’ Party (WP) and Progress Singapore Party (PSP), which spent $1.21 and $1.19 per voter respectively.
The PSP was the biggest overall spender among all the opposition parties, forking out $781,275. It had fielded the largest opposition contingent in its maiden campaign, with 24 candidates in nine constituencies
The WP came next at $705,647. It contested 21 seats across six constituencies.
Meanwhile, Peoples Voice and Red Dot United spent the least per voter, at 13 cents and 10 cents per voter respectively.
The sole independent candidate who contested the single-member constituency of Pioneer, Mr Cheang Peng Wah, spent $31,537 on his campaign – $1.28 per voter.
There were 2,651,435 registered electors for the recent general election.
Candidates are required under the law to submit their election expenses to ensure accountability and transparency in campaign finance.
People can inspect the candidates’ expenses at the Elections Department for a period of six months, starting Friday (Aug 21).
They have to pay the ELD $2 to inspect each candidate’s returns.
The returns are available for inspection for six months, until Feb 20 next year.
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