The Singapore presidency for an office of such little actual power has some of the most stringent requirements to run. Beyond the standard age(45), residency and citizenship requirments. It also requires having held a high-office in the past, either in the private or the public
the president must have for a period of not less than three years held office —
as Minister, Chief Justice, Speaker, Attorney-General, Chairman of the Public Service Commission, Auditor-General, Accountant-General or Permanent Secretary;[53]
as chief executive officer (CEO) of a key statutory board or government company: the Central Provident Fund Board, the Housing and Development Board, the Jurong Town Corporation, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Temasek Holdings, or GIC Private Limited (formerly known as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation);[54]
as the most senior executive of a company with an average of $500 million in shareholders' equity for the most recent three years in that office, and which is profitable after taxes;[55] or
in any other similar or comparable position of seniority and responsibility in any other organisation or department of equivalent size or complexity in the public or private sector which has given him such experience and ability in administering and managing financial affairs as to enable him to carry out effectively the functions and duties of the office of president.[56]
The job comes with very few responsibilities for a 4.5-million-dollar paycheck, beyond approving certain appointments it's main actual power is having to approve government spending of the country's substantial financial reserves.
BackgroundDespite or perhaps due to it's lack of power, the Singaporean presidents have often fallen out with the governing party and presidential contests have been one of he few "interesting" election to happen. Even before it became elected, the office was often a way to quietly retire figures who had fallen out most famously Devan Nair was appointed to the office to mark his formal exile from politics.
It remains a bit mysterious why the office became elected, with the popular explanation that Lee Kuan Yew feared that an opposition would be able to spend the countries reserves unchecked and wanted to put a break on it not being fully logical. The first presidential election featured Ong Teng Cheong who was endorsed by his opponent Chua Kim Yeow and only ran to provide some illusion of choice, but still got a respectable 41% of the vote despite announced on polling day that Ong was the better candidate.
Perhaps the only election to actually qualify as an election and not an electoral-type event was the 2011 presidential election, where 4 Canidates all named Tan battled out. Presidental Tony Tan won by a silm 0.4% margin against the Tan Cheong Bock who had fallen out with the main PAP clique and was promising to be a more intendent figure as president.
The narrow margins of that election struck a chord of fear into the PAP who went on to pass a counstional amendment specificying that if a certain race had not held the office for 4 previous terms, the next election would be reserved for a member of that race. Which conveniently excluded Tan Cheong Bock from running (Who has since left the PAP and formed his own oppostion PSP party).
2023Now that he is too old to run for office, the government is inclined to allow an actual election. Popular Finance Minister Tharman has announced his intention to run in the election and is by far the favorite, he is a popular figure who is on the socially liberal end of the party but is mostly known for his competence.
No opposition figure meets the lofty requirements for the office, so the only announced competitors is Business Man George Goh Ching Wah who run the Harvey Norman franchise here. His announcement speech was heavy on bible quotes and some have drawn attention to his links to the politicaly influential Evangellical community here.
Singapore presidential elections are almost never fought on actual issues but rather on how much indepdence should they have from the ruling PAP party and personality. It remains to be seen if Tharmans popularity will allow him a landslide victory, or public annoyance and anti-establishment sentiment will allow his mostly unkown opponent take an upset victory.
