PAP FLAGS DISPLAYED ALONG OWEN ROAD, VIOLATION OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ACT?

Dear Editors,

I spotted these PAP flags hanging at Owen Road as at 12.07pm 27 August 2015. It is not even Nomination day yet, how can they start campaigning for the PAP? Is this legal or illegal? If you read the Elections Act, it says clearly that only after candidates are given a permit can they be authorised to display posters, flags or banners in public places.

This is what the Parliamentary Elections Act states out clearly:

Permits for display of posters and banners
10. —(1) As soon as possible after nomination proceedings have closed on nomination day, the Returning Officer shall issue to every candidate or group of candidates, or to each candidate’s election agent, a permit substantially in the form set out in the Schedule authorising the display of posters and banners in any public place in the electoral division in which the candidate or (as the case may be) group of candidates seeks election.

Definitions
2. In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires —

“banner” means any election advertising that is a flag, bunting, ensign or standard;

“campaign period” , in relation to an election, means the period —

(a) beginning with the closure of the place of nomination on nomination day after the election is adjourned under section 34(1)(a) or 34A(1)(a), as the case may be, of the Act to enable a poll to be taken in accordance with the Act; and

(b) ending with the start of the eve of polling day of that election;

Any person who commits an offence under such regulations shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months and every offence under such regulations shall be an arrestable offence within the meaning of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 (Act 15 of 2010).