Singapore legislation

Section 42D

of Presidential Elections Act 1991

Section 42D

Exceptions to cooling-off period election advertising ban

Amended byAct 9 of 2023 wef 01/06/2023

(1)

Section 42C does not apply to or in relation to any of the following:

(a)

any election advertising consisting only of permissible electoral matter and forming part of any of the following:

(i)

any clothing that is intended to be worn on the body;

(ii)

any article in the nature of a dress or clothing accessory, such as a lapel pin, tie, scarf, cap or hat;

(iii)

any button, badge, mug, pen or pencil or any other small and portable promotional item prescribed by the elections advertising regulations;

(b)

any public display, handing out, distribution, sale or otherwise making available of any literary work or artistic work in the course of the sale, or promotion of the sale, of the literary work or artistic work for not less than its commercial value, if the literary work or artistic work (as the case may be) was planned to be published regardless if there was any election.

(2)

In addition, section 42C(1) does not apply to or in relation to any of the following:

(a)

any communication of content between 2 or more individuals that is of a private or domestic nature by electronic means;

(b)

any communication of content by means of an electronic service where the user-generated content enabled by that service is accessible substantially or only to a closed group of end-users employed or engaged in a business (whether or not carried on for profit) and solely for their use as a tool in the conduct of that business;

(c)

any publication of any news relating to an election by an authorised news agency;

(d)

any publication of election advertising in other circumstances prescribed by the election advertising regulations as excluded from section 42C(1).

(3)

In addition, section 42C(2) does not apply to or in relation to any of the following:

(a)

any non-online election advertising that —

(i)

was lawfully publicly displayed before the start of the cooling-off period of the election concerned; and

(ii)

is not relocated, altered or modified since the start of the cooling-off period;

(b)

the public display of any non-online election advertising within or on an exterior wall or exterior window of the office or committee room of a candidate provided that the non-online election advertising —

(i)

consists only of permissible electoral matter; and

(ii)

is solely for the purpose of indicating that the office or room is the office or committee room of the candidate;

(c)

any public display of election advertising in other circumstances prescribed by the election advertising regulations as excluded from section 42C(2).

Amended byAct 9 of 2023 wef 01/06/2023