Mar 12, 2011
The eyes and ears of an election candidate
Come election time, the spotlight is on the candidate. But working in the shadows is his 'right-hand' man who plays the multiple roles of friend, adviser, campaign manager, strategist and troubleshooter all rolled into one. Insight examines the role of the election agent.
By Elgin Toh
HOT off the presses were the election posters with the candidates' pictures.
Printed just before Nomination Day for the 2001 General Election, one poster showed newcomer Tharman Shanmugaratnam standing in Marine Parade GRC as a member of the team helmed by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Another poster featured lawyer R. Ravindran, who was standing for a second term, as part of the Jurong GRC team.
Then, at the eleventh hour on Nomination Day, a dramatic game of musical chairs unfolded: Mr Tharman was switched to the contested Jurong GRC while Mr Ravindran took his place in Marine Parade GRC, which saw a walkover.
Mr Goh later told reporters that he made the last-minute change because he wanted potential office-holder Mr Tharman to 'prove his worth' in a contest.
The two candidates, however, were not the only ones thrown into a frenzied scurry that day.
Their election agents plunged into action immediately to pick up new posters that reflected the actual constituencies where their candidates were standing.
'The election agent has to be prepared for such contingencies,' explains Hong Kah GRC MP Ang Mong Seng.
'Some of the original posters and banners will no longer be usable. You have to pick up the new ones - and quickly too, because we usually put them up by 2pm or 3pm on Nomination Day.'
Mr Ang should know.
The People's Action Party (PAP) veteran was an election agent in three GEs, acting on behalf of Mr Yeo Cheow Tong in 1984 and Mr Goh Chee Wee in 1988 and 1991, before he was fielded as a candidate in 1997.
Just what is the role of an election agent, the only legal representative of the candidate recognised under the Parliamentary Elections Act? Insight spoke to eight former election agents who had worked with the PAP and the opposition in previous polls.
They paint a picture of one who burrows away outside the spotlight, ironing out the nitty-gritty details in an election campaign. He is a resourceful leader, thoroughly grassroots in his approach, who connects easily with residents.
His duties include making sure the candidate's nomination papers are in order, booking the rally sites, mobilising party supporters and drawing up the campaign strategy with the candidate.
Apart from discharging all his legal duties for the candidate, he is also trusted adviser, chief of staff, campaign manager and troubleshooter all rolled into one.
'One mistake by the agent could cause the candidate to be disqualified,' notes Mr Long Foo Choo, who was PAP candidate Chan Soo Sen's election agent in Joo Chiat in 2006. 'So he has to be someone the candidate can really count on.'
It is not surprising, perhaps, that someone who embodies all these qualities often goes on to become a candidate.
One prominent example is Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who was once election agent for Progressive Party leader John Laycock in the 1951 Legislative Council elections for the Katong ward.
He later wrote in his memoirs that, during the campaign, Mr Laycock asked him to 'arrange evening parties, with professional female dancers to partner the men in the Malay joget, and provide food and drink although it was against the law'.
Other agents-turned-candidates include Mr Ong Ah Heng, who was Mr Lee's agent from 1976 to 1991, and opposition veteran Low Thia Khiang, who was agent for the late Workers' Party (WP) leader J.B. Jeyaretnam in 1984.
One election agent points out that most aspiring Malaysian electoral candidates begin their political career by working the ground as election agents. Singapore might be better off, he argues, if more MPs take this route because they would then have a more ground-up perspective.
Intelligence-gathering
FOR many of PAP's 80-plus branches, gearing up for elections begins years before the prime minister calls for elections.
As early as two years before a GE, sometimes even earlier, an election committee - or, as one agent puts it, the 'wartime committee' - would have been set up, with around eight sub-committees overseeing areas like rallies, posters and banners, and campaign logistics.
The 'feedback' sub-committee, for instance, gathers intelligence on the opposition. During the interview in Mr Ang's office at the Hong Kah Town Council, he held up a thick folder of neatly filed newsletters and fliers that opposition parties had distributed in Hong Kah - his 'feedback' sub-committee had clearly been hard at work.
The branch secretary heads the election committee and, in many PAP branches, when the GE is called, he is simply named the election agent. In other branches, it is the chairman of the citizens' consultative committee who takes that role.
Either way, the machinery is put together well ahead of time and oiled at regular intervals, so it is ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
Each candidate appoints one agent on or before Nomination Day by informing the Elections Department. In a group representation constituency, the agent for one of the candidates is appointed the principal election agent.
On Nomination Day, the agent accompanies his candidate to the nomination centre, where candidacy papers are filed.
Some agents still remember the mixed emotions they felt when they arrived at the centre, like a gladiator stepping into the arena for the first time. For opposition agents, this is usually more intimidating as they come face to face with a huge PAP contingent.
For Mr Reno Fong, agent of the National Solidarity Party's (NSP) Hong Kah GRC team in 1997, the encounter had a galvanising effect: 'The experience struck me with awe but surprisingly, it also made me more resolute to fight for the underdogs' cause.'
The nomination centre is also where the campaign could die even before the first exchange of blows. If forms are not properly filled in, the election officer or the representative of a rival party may object - which could lead to the candidacy being rejected.
As Mr Long recounts: 'Watching the election officers go through the papers can be unnerving. The night before, I had checked the IC number behind every name in the form - the proposer, seconder and assenters. But you can't help thinking, what if something goes wrong?'
Something did go wrong in 2001 for the WP team ready to contest in Aljunied GRC. It was disqualified because it had inadvertently left out from its forms the name of the constituency it wanted to contest in.
It is the agent's duty to make sure his candidate's forms are in order. He can also raise objections against his rival's forms, although minor issues may sometimes be glossed over.
Lawyer Raymond Lye, who was the agent for PAP candidates Charles Chong (1997), Teo Chee Hean (2001) and Michael Palmer (2006), recalls a Nomination Day incident in 1996 when he spotted a name in the opposition papers written in abbreviation, and not in full as required.
'I alerted the candidates. They discussed and decided not to take any action,' he says. They were, after all, looking forward to a contest.
The lamp-post war
NOMINATION takes place from 11 am to noon. At 12.30pm, no further objections may be made. If more than one party is contesting in the constituency, the fight is on.
Pickup trucks carrying banners and posters are at once dispatched into the ward to make the party's presence felt. 'If you are more efficient, you leave a good impression on voters,' says Mr Ang.
The first skirmish is usually fought over who gets the best positions on the lamp posts. The Elections Department limits the number of posters for each candidate (120 or so in a single ward), so agents want to make the most of every poster. For example, they are placed within eye level so that residents do not have to crane their necks to look at them.
PAP agents have the edge as their activists would have identified ahead of time every lamp post they could use. But even though opposition agents are generally not as well-prepared, they find ways of free-riding on the work of PAP agents.
Former banker Henry Lim, who was a WP agent for the East Coast GRC team in 2006, says the party's strategy was simple: Go around the estate and put a poster beside every PAP one.
'You don't have to reinvent the wheel,' he says with a laugh. 'They would have identified the best spots, we just match them poster for poster.'
The next worry on the agent's mind is the booking of rally sites, a contentious issue in every election.
Nothing matches the rallies in providing drama and excitement in a campaign.
Because the PAP's message is well-publicised, the opposition rallies are the ones that attract the masses, often with crowds spilling onto the surrounding roads and HDB blocks.
'The response we received at the rallies, the rousing atmosphere, can be overwhelming for anyone participating in a GE for the first time,' says Mr Lim.
Sometimes, when it gets too rousing, things may threaten to boil over.
In 2001, after a rally held at Jalan Besar by the Singapore Democratic Alliance's Mr Chiam See Tong, some people stayed on, blocking the traffic and trying to attach Mr Chiam's posters onto public buses that passed by. They were angered after hearing that Mr Chiam had failed to secure the rally site in Potong Pasir.
'After I got home late that night, I received a call from a reporter about the trouble that was brewing there,' recounts Mr S. Kunalen, Mr Chiam's agent.
Both Mr Kunalen and Mr Chiam returned to the rally scene, along Lavender Street, to persuade the people to disperse, to no avail. That night, 16 of them were arrested and one policeman was injured.
And matters don't spin out of control only at night.
As Mr Fong relates, during an NSP lunchtime rally at Raffles Place in 1996, the enthusiastic crowd overwhelmed helpers selling party newsletters. Many simply took copies and stuffed cash in the donation boxes before helpers could react. The police saw that as an illegal solicitation of donations. They approached Mr Fong, the election agent, and asked him to go with them to the police station.
But as they spoke, members of the crowd started shouting, 'The police are arresting the opposition'.
'The officers, sensing that the crowd was agitated and getting rowdy, left me alone and hurriedly walked away. The crowd then started to cheer and shout 'NSP, NSP'' says Mr Fong. After the 1997 GE, he received a warning letter from the police.
Of course, this feverish pitch is not kept up throughout the campaign. Much of the agent's work is mundane.
Mr Long remembers having to copy the addresses of voter households onto envelopes, so that campaign letters could be mailed out. Mr Lye's memory is that of sitting in a room stamping the electioneering permits of volunteer after volunteer.
Agents also have to keep scrupulous records of all expenses incurred, and keep below the $3-per-voter spending limit.
The key, they point out, is that campaign workers should not allow themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security because, more often than not, an incident could be lurking around the corner.
For Mr Lye, an agent for PAP's Pasir Ris-Punggol team in 2006, a mini-crisis occurred when their rivals accused the PAP MPs of reneging on some promises. The PAP team disagreed vociferously.
'The core campaign group huddled together in a meeting to discuss our response,' he says. 'We decided to distribute fliers directly to voters addressing the issue. That meant we had to write and print the fliers within a day or two.'
Over at Mr Chiam's Potong Pasir campaign in 2001, the election agent kept a watchful eye on both the PAP candidate and other PAP leaders who might swing by to canvass in the opposition stronghold.
'Many residents and provision shop owners were on our side, and informed us of PAP activity. We made it a point to get Mr Chiam there within an hour after they left, so we could quickly counter whatever they said, and the PAP's message was not allowed to fester,' says Mr Kunalen.
As the campaign builds up to its climax - Polling Day - the stress on party activists can be gnawing. Cheering them up with simple pleasures becomes important for sustaining morale.
In Mr Ang's own campaign in 1997, volunteers were treated to cool ginseng-root drinks to help combat the uncompromising heat.
Mr Long still remembers the day during the 2006 campaign when Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, whose Marine Parade GRC was uncontested, dropped by the branch to reward the Joo Chiat activists with durians. 'All he did that day was to chat with us over durians. But it meant a lot to the volunteers,' he says.
Vote-counting drama
POLLING Day - the day of reckoning for election agents and, of course, their candidates. They wake up early in the morning with the realisation that lives could be changed by the end of the night.
The election agent appoints polling agents, who observe the voting throughout the day, and counting agents, who keep tabs on the tallying of votes after polls close.
With nerves frayed and adrenaline pumping, drama is seldom lacking.
At one polling centre in East Coast GRC in 2006, a WP polling agent made a firm request for the officer to lower his voice when reading out the names of voters. 'It was scaring some voters, especially the older ones,' says Mr Lim.
Minor incidents like this were only a prelude to the gripping finale that night. Early on in the count, recalls Mr Lim, the WP team was leading the PAP in East Coast GRC. 'We got really excited.'
It certainly did not help to calm nerves that at the two counting tables Mr Lim was observing, the officers appeared to hold differing standards on what constituted a spoilt vote. He had to challenge the calls of one officer frequently.
Two hours into the counting, however, it became very clear that the PAP would win, as they eventually did with 64 per cent of the votes. 'So we became less anxious and stopped making the challenges, because the spoilt votes couldn't have affected the outcome,' he says.
At Potong Pasir, Mr Kunalen notes that the Sennett private estate is usually considered the 'swing' area.
'In 2001, Mr Chiam lost Sennett, so it got really close,' he says. 'But in 2006, Sennett was counted first and Mr Chiam won. With that, Mr Sitoh Yih Pin (the PAP candidate) called Mr Chiam to congratulate him even though the count was ongoing, because he knew it was over.'
Win or lose, the race is over on Polling Day. Of course, the election agent has a few loose ends to tie up - the clearing of posters and banners, and the filing of campaign expenditures with the Elections Department.
Polling Day caps a nine-day experience - 10 days for this GE, because of the new cooling-off day - that would, no doubt, count among the most exhilarating and emotionally draining in the election agent's life.
The bonding among comrades who had fought, side by side, exceeds by far what might be achieved in any typical team-building course, says Mr Lye.
And for Mr Lim, even losing did not take away the value of the experience.
'It was great to have been able to witness first-hand the fair democratic process,' he says.
elgintoh@sph.com.sg
Duties of an election agent
EVERY candidate is allowed to appoint one election agent under the Parliamentary Elections Act.
His formal duties include:
Booking rally sites
Ensuring the number of posters and banners, as well as their dimensions, stay within legal limits
Taking down the posters after the election
Issuing permits to election volunteers
Obtaining permits for campaign vehicles
Entering into business contracts on behalf of a candidate (for example, hiring a contractor to put up a rally stage)
Recording all campaign expenses
Filing an expenditure report with the Elections Department within one month of the GE
Appointing polling and counting agents on Polling Day
Obtaining permits for the post-election 'Thank You' parade
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