Overseas voting was introduced in April 2001 'to provide Singaporeans with strong links to Singapore to have their say through their votes'.

However, a cursory reading of the provision of the law on overseas voting will tell us that it does not enfranchise overseas Singaporean citizens as a whole but only those who have direct (government employees) or indirect (employees of international organisations of which Singapore is a member) affiliation with the government.

There definitely is merit in the observation of a student in Canada when he said that there is "�unequal rights to vote for all Singaporeans � who are not associated with any government or public agency" referring to himself and all Singaporeans who are similarly situated.