Singapore's Indian-origin ex-minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam leads sample count with 70% of votes

Singapore: Tharman Shanmugaratnam, an Indian-origin Singapore-born economist, was leading by a huge margin over his two Chinese-origin contenders in Singapore's presidential election on Friday, winning 70 per cent of the votes, according to the sample count result released by the Elections Department.

Apart from Tharman, the other two candidates in the race are Ng Kok Song, former chief investment officer with the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), and Tan Kin Lian, former chief of the NTUC Income, a state-owned union-based insurance group.

Song, 75, received 16 per cent, while Lian, 75, got 14 per cent, according to the sample count results.

The final result is expected to come around midnight.

The sample count is based on a sampling of 100 ballot papers from each of the 1,264 polling stations for this election and was done at the start of counting soon after polls closed at 8 PM.

The numbers are said to be fairly indicative of the possible outcome of the election, with previous sample counts typically having a confidence level of 95 per cent, plus or minus four percentage points, The Straits Times newspaper reported.

This means that the sample count estimate should not differ from the actual voting result by more than 4 per cent for 95 per cent of the estimates made, it said.

The Elections Department (ELD), however, said sample counts give an early indication of the election outcome but the "result could be different".

The sample results give 66-year-old Tharman a big lead, prompting the former deputy prime minister to thank his supporters for strong support.

Tharman formally launched his presidential campaign in July with a pledge to evolve the country's culture to keep it a "shining spot" in the world.

He joined politics in 2001 and has served in the public sector and ministerial positions with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) for over two decades.

Over 2.7 million voters cast their ballots. The voters started casting their ballots at 8 AM when polling stations opened. The polls closed at 8 PM (local time).

Incumbent President Madam Halimah Yacob's six-year term will end on September 13. She is the country's eighth and first female president.

This was Singapore's first contested presidential election since 2011.