Halimah
Yacob has been declared Singapore’s eighth president on Wednesday after a
“walkover” election that saw no vote after no other contenders ran for the
position.
Yacob,
63, had been the only candidate deemed eligible to stand in the country’s
Elections Department, having held a key public position as speaker of
parliament for three years.
The
other two contenders, Salleh Marican and Farid Khan, were both denied
eligibility, having fallen short of a constitutional rule that required any
candidate from the private sector to have led a company with shareholder equity
of at least 500 million Singapore dollars (372 million dollars).
Following
the announcement, Yacob thanked her supporters in a speech, calling it a “a
proud moment for Singapore, for multiculturalism and multi-racialism.”
Yacob
is Singapore’s first Malay president in 47 years and the first woman to occupy
the president’s office.
While
some have applauded the historic moment, the election has also drawn public
criticism due to what was seen as a lack of democratic process.
Yacob
addressed these concerns, saying “I am a president for everyone, regardless of
race, language, religion or creed.”
The
president is vested with the responsibility of overseeing the country’s
national asset reserves, but does not hold any of the executive powers of the
prime minister or members of the cabinet.
Yacob
is expected to be sworn into office on Thursday.
The
last Malay to hold the presidency was Yusof Ishak, whose image adorns the
country’s banknotes.
Yusof
was president between 1965 and 1970, the first years of Singapore’s
independence following a short-lived union with neighboring Malaysia, but
executive power lay with Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s first prime minister.
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