economist Tharman Shanmugaratnam(Shanmugaratnam) 

Singapore. Former Indian-origin minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Shanmugaratnam)  has been elected as the new President of Singapore. He got more than 70.4% votes in the presidential elections. People voted in large numbers in the presidential election held after more than a decade. Former Indian-origin minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam won the triangular contest. Apart from Thurman, two other candidates in the fray for the country’s ninth president – former chief investment officer of the Singapore Government Investment Corp (GIC) N. Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian – the former head of the country’s state-owned insurance group NTUC Income – were also there.

Indian-origin Singapore-born economist Shanmugaratnam, 66, formally launched his presidential campaign last month with a pledge to keep the country’s culture “shining” in the world. He was one of the three candidates selected under strict criteria. Candidates running for the presidency of Singapore have to go through a rigorous qualification process.

Shanmugaratnam, who entered politics in 2001, has held public sector and ministerial positions with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) for more than two decades. More than 27 lakh people voted in the presidential election. This was Singapore’s first presidential election in 12 years, as the last election in 2017 – which was reserved for Malay candidates – was unopposed. This is the first presidential election in Singapore since 2011. The first election for the post of President in Singapore was held on 28 August 1993.

The six-year term of outgoing President Halimah Yacob is ending on September 13. She is the eighth President of the country and the first woman to reach this post. The 2017 presidential election in Singapore was a reserved election, in which only members of the Malay community were allowed to contest. During that time, Halimah was nominated as the President, because there was no other candidate.