Today, we focus on how the public has assessed the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. In particular, Liang Lei and Sean Lim, both graduates of the National University of Singapore, share more about findings of public opinion polls or surveys published by firms such as Blackbox and Ipsos. What can we learn from these polls or surveys? How has the government responded to these different findings, if they have? And how has the government responded to critical commentaries published in the local and international media?

Today, we speak to veteran journalist Bertha Henson, currently an Associate Professor of Practice at the National University of Singapore and formerly with the Singapore Press Holdings stable of newspapers. She’s covered seven general elections, four by-elections, and two contested presidential elections, and hence I asked her about her experience of reporting an election, the issues to which she is paying attention during the upcoming general election in Singapore, as well as how the ruling party would approach the election.

Today, we focus on the clarity of election and electoral regulations by speaking to Christalle Tay and Ethan Tay, both recent graduates of the National University of Singapore. They tell us more about the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee and the Parliamentary Elections (COVID-19 Special Arrangements) Bill, the discourse surrounding online and postal voting, as well as the election experience of Israel and South Korea. In terms of what else Singaporeans need to know about the elections, Christalle also makes the interesting observation that this will be the first time that parties will campaign in a Pofma environment.