Jack Tsen-Ta Lee
Assistant Professor of Law
School of Law, SMU

UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN living under a rock for the past two weeks, you’ll know that polling day for the by-election in Hougang Single Member Constituency is tomorrow, 26 May. This makes today “cooling-off day”, when no active election campaigning is permitted by law.

At 12:46 am today, one of my Facebook friends posted a hyperlink to a speech by Workers’ Party candidate Png Eng Huat delivered at the Party’s last rally before cooling-off day. The person added a comment to the effect that the article was worth reading, but that he would not quote any portions of it due to cooling-off-day restrictions.

Subsequently, another person posted a comment on the contents of the speech. The original poster then responded that that person might wish to delete the comment in view of cooling-off-day restrictions. Then ensued a discussion about what the law permits or disallows.

That got me thinking about the issue. Continue reading →