Singapore legislation
Regulation 9
of Public Order (Election Meetings and Processions in Parliamentary Elections) Regulations 2009
Regulation 9
Crowd control and security measures
Subregulation 1
Police officers may be present at any election meeting to maintain order and may record the proceedings of an election meeting by means of tape recorders or video recorders or both.
Subregulation 2
Police officers may also take —
such crowd control measures as are necessary for the safety and well-being of persons attending an election meeting; and
such security measures as are necessary for the protection of any person or persons attending an election meeting from any imminent threat to his or their safety,which may include cordoning off an area that is or is around the site at which an election meeting is to be held.
Subregulation 3
If any police officer present at an election meeting believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary in the interest of security to do so, the police officer may require a person who is present at or about to attend the election meeting, or is about to enter any area cordoned off under paragraph (2), to be subject to either or all of the following for the purposes of finding out whether any offensive weapon is hidden in the person’s clothing or personal effects:
a screening search or a frisk search of the person or both;
a search of the person’s personal effects that are reasonably capable of concealing an offensive weapon;
to deposit with a police officer any personal effects that are reasonably capable of concealing an offensive weapon or being used to cause injury to, or incapacitate, a person.
Subregulation 4
Where any person of whom a requirement is made under paragraph (3), without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails to comply with the requirement, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both.
Subregulation 5
If the most senior police officer present at an election meeting considers that a breach of the peace is likely to occur at the election meeting, the police officer may order the election meeting to immediately stop and the person to whom the permit is granted shall thereupon immediately declare the election meeting closed and ensure that those attending the election meeting leave quietly and peacefully.
Subregulation 6
If the person to whom the permit is granted fails to comply with any order given under paragraph (5), he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both.
Subregulation 7
Any person to whom a permit is granted under these Regulations for an election meeting, or any organiser of an election meeting, who, without reasonable excuse, tampers with or removes a tape or other barrier used to cordon off under paragraph (2) an area that is or is around the site of that election meeting, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both.
Subregulation 8
Nothing in paragraph (3) shall authorise any police officer conducting a screening search or frisk search of a person to remove, or require a person to remove, any of the person’s clothing, and a frisk search of a person shall be conducted by a police officer of the same sex as the person.
Subregulation 9
In this regulation —
a cordon around the site at which an election meeting is to be held may include a roadblock and any appropriate form of physical barrier or obstruction preventing or limiting the passage of persons or vehicles to and from that site;
“offensive weapon” means any article made or adapted to cause damage to property or to cause injury or fear of injury to a person, or by which the person having it intends to cause damage to property or to cause injury or fear of injury to a person;
a screening search of a person means a search by equipment that is designed to carry out the search without touching the person.