Quadrilingual Poll Card from Singapore
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From Mok Ling:
As I'm writing this (evening of 3 May), my friends across the Strait of Malacca in Singapore are eagerly awaiting the results of their most recent general elections. As I've found out, in Singapore, voting in elections is not only a civic duty but mandatory by law!
I happened to come across this image showing the reverse of a poll card issued to all voters:
The reverse of a poll card issued for the Singaporean presidential election, 2011.
The polling station in question was at the void deck of Block 115 Clementi Street 13
in the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency. (source)
The image is of a poll card issued during the 2011 general elections, but the ones issued today are identical.
What caught my eye is the Chinese version of the text: tóupiào shì qiángzhìxìng de 投票是強制性的 — to me reads like "voting is compulsionaristic!"
The Malay text is just about 1:1 with the English. I have no idea about the Tamil text, but considering even state-run media has compiled a listicle of the many, many times the government has completely butchered Tamil translations specifically, I'm not confident.
it's almost refreshing to see Chinese being butchered this time.
Selected readings
- "Chinese signs in Australian election" (5/23/19)
- "Australian election slang" (5/6/25)
- "Multilingual voting signs" (11/9/12)