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.