Speaking to CNA last month, Mr Seah said his team would have liked to hang campaign posters, but could not “as part of the rules”.
Posters can only be put up during the campaign period for a constituency during an election, which does not occur when there is a walkover.
However, he said printed manifestos would still be sent out and “not go to waste”.
A former PAP MP who experienced two walkovers in his political career told CNA that it was unsurprising to incur “quite high” expenses ahead of Nomination Day, even for an uncontested constituency.
“In planning the GE, we always assume there is a contest,” said former Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Inderjit Singh, who was elected unopposed in the 1997 and 2001 General Election.
He said the biggest costs come from posters, plywood, manifestos, transport, IT services and meals, adding: “Whether or not there is a contest, it is money already spent.”
Printing firms also previously told CNA that orders for such physical election campaign collaterals typically come six months in advance.
CNA has contacted the PAP for comment.
HOW DID OTHER PARTIES SPEND?
Under the law, candidates have until Jun 16 to declare their election expenses and what they were used for. This is to ensure accountability and transparency of each candidate’s election finances, said ELD.
The election expenses limit for candidates was also increased from S$4 per elector to S$5 per elector, to account for inflation.
A total of 211 candidates contested in GE2025, with no declarations from Workers’ Party candidates so far.
The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) were the next highest spenders among the initial batch of 35 candidate declarations.
Ten of the 13 candidates fielded by PSP have declared their spending, all to the tune of over S$30,000. Former Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai is among the biggest spenders in the party so far, paying S$36,041 to fund his West Coast-Jurong West GRC campaign.
Independent candidates Jeremy Tan, who contested Mountbatten SMC, and Darryl Lo, who contested Radin Mas SMC, spent S$16,075 and S$12,213 respectively.
Retired businessman Tan spent more than half of this – S$8,804 – on his solo physical rally.
Among the 35 was also one candidate – Red Dot United’s (RDU) Kala Manickam – who had disputed claims of S$1,365. This consisted of S$404 for “food expenses for candidates and volunteers”, S$66 for “transport charges for volunteers” and S$895 for “cost of printing additional flyers”.
Speaking to CNA, Ms Manickam, who contested in Jurong Central SMC, said there was an agreement with RDU that part of her election expenses would have to be raised through donations, which she acknowledged she had been unable to raise enough of.
“I don’t have donations, so how to pay off? They said I can’t be reimbursed, so I said ok, just take from my pocket to pay,” she said.
She added that she was advised by her election agent to put these costs under disputed claims, but was not aware that these claims would be made public.
Responding to CNA, an RDU spokesperson said: “RDU has our own processes for determining what constitutes election expenditure, and these are in line with prevailing election regulations.”
According to ELD’s website, a disputed claim occurs when an election agent disputes any claim in respect of election expenses incurred by the candidate, and refuses or fails to pay the claim within the specified time period of 28 days.
Among the lower spenders was RDU’s Ben Puah, who spent S$109 on his Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC campaign. He is also the only candidate so far to declare non-recordable donations of S$280.
The People’s Power Party candidate Samuel Lee, who contested in Ang Mo Kio GRC and had recently announced his departure from the party, spent S$100.
There were also seven candidates who reported having spent no money at all on their campaigns: RDU’s Sharad Kumar, Pang Heng Chuan and David Foo; Singapore Democratic Party’s Alec Tok; Singapore Democratic Alliance’s Harminder Pal Singh; and Singapore People’s Party’s Norhakim and Lim Rui Xian.
