SINGAPORE: The next Singapore Presidential Election due next year will be reserved for Malay candidates, based on the hiatus-triggered model, Channel NewsAsia reported, quoting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament today.
Lee said that the Constitutional Amendment Bill states that the Government should legislate on when the racial provision should start and it intends to do so when amending the Presidential Elections Act in January next year.
It will start counting from the first president who exercised the powers of the Elected Presidency, namely Dr Wee Kim Wee, Lee said during the parliamentary debate on proposed changes to the Elected Presidency system, which started on Monday.
The prime minister said thus, if a qualified Malay candidate steps up to run in the Presidential Election next year, Singapore will have a Malay President again.
"As Minister Yaacob (Ibrahim) noted yesterday, this would be our first after more than 46 years, since our first President Encik Yusof Ishak," Lee was quoted as saying.
"I look forward to this," he added.
Lee said that the hiatus-triggered model means that while presidential elections will generally be open to candidates of all races, but if there is no President from a particular community for five consecutive terms, then the next term will be reserved for a President from that community.
This means that in the course of six terms, there should be at least one President from the Chinese, Malay, Indian and other minority communities, provided qualified candidates appear, he explained. -- BERNAMA