Singapore General Election 2025: Nomination Day set for 23 April, Polling Day on 3 May

As the nation prepares for election, here is what registered voters, including employers and employees, need to know.

Singapore is gearing up for General Election 2025, with the Writ of Election officially issued. All eyes are now on two key dates — Nomination Day on 23 April (Wednesday), and, assuming that more than one candidate is in the mix, Polling Day is scheduled to take place on 3 May (Saturday).

This announcement comes as Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has confirmed that he advised President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to dissolve the Parliament and issue the Writ of Election. 

Nomination Day: What it is and how it works

Nomination Day falls on Wednesday, 23 April 2025.

To be eligible to enter the Nomination place, each candidate must meet the following requirements:

• Hold a Political Donation Certificate.
• Be accompanied by a proposer, seconder, and at least four assentors from the current Register of Electors in the relevant electoral division.
• For Group Representation Constituency (GRC) candidates, one member must have a certificate from either the Malay Community Committee or the Indian and Other Minority Communities Committee.

All documents including the Nomination Paper must be submitted in person to the Returning Officer between 11am and 12pm at the designated Nomination Place for their constituency. There are nine such centres across Singapore, each assigned to specific electoral divisions.

To support a smoother process, prospective candidates are encouraged to prepare their forms online via the Elections Department’s (ELD) website, which also checks that the names of the proposer, seconder, and assentors are listed in the current register of electors.

Responsibilities of voters, employers and employees: What happens on Polling Day?

Assuming more than one candidate (or group) is successfully nominated in an electoral division, Saturday, 3 May 2025, is confirmed as Polling Day.

Employers need to take note that, in line with the law, Polling Day will be designated as a public holiday. As such, they are reminded that every registered voter in their employment must be given a reasonable period of time to cast their vote.

What happens in case employees need to work on on a public holiday?

Ministry of Manpower has confirmed that for those employees who need to work on a public holiday, employers have the following options:

• They’re entitled to an extra day’s salary for the day’s work. OR
• They should be given another day off.

Employers can also grant time-off-in-lieu for the following group of employees:

• Workmen earning more than S$4,500 a month,
• Non-workmen earning more than S$2,600 a month, 
• All managers and executives

The time-off-in-lieu should be based on a mutually agreed number of hours for working on a public holiday.