Abstract:
The Singapore President’s role is not only ceremonial: from 1991, it has encompassed the substantive function of serving as a guardian of public reserves and the integrity of the public service. A person must meet certain qualifying criteria in order to run in a Presidential election. This article focuses on one set of qualifying criteria, namely, the “service criteria”: the requirement that candidates have had certain experience in serving in certain roles in the public sector or the private sector. The service criteria were last amended in 2016, and came to the fore in the 2023 Presidential Election following George Goh’s unsuccessful bid to run. This article aims to unpack the principles underlying the private-sector service criteria, with a view to shedding light on certain questions of interpretation – such as what counts as an “organisation”, a “chief executive”, and an “office” – with which both aspirants and the Presidential Elections Committee will have to reckon. In particular, this article argues that principles familiar to not only legal professionals, but also accounting professionals, may usefully illuminate the service criteria; and that a common set of principles underlying both the private-sector and the public-sector criteria can be discerned.