today is Polling Day

today is a watershed day for singapore as all singaporeans*, young and old, will be going to the polls to cast their vote on who they want to represent them in parliament. this election sees 15 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) and 12 Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) but only one, the Tanjong Pagar GRC, led by MM Lee Kuan Yew, being uncontested has led to a walkover.

a total of slightly more than 2.211 million singaporeans will exercise their collective votes to give their mandate to the candidates of any of the 7 political parties to govern our tiny red dot island for the next 5 days. many will be voting for the first time and one in four or approximately 600,000 voters will be between the ages of 21 and 35.

*generally, singaporeans who are at least 21 years of age on january 01, 2011 and residing in singapore. aditionally, persons whose names are found in the current register of electors of a contested constituency, will receive via mail to their latest NRIC address, a poll card informing them of polling day and where they can cast their votes in person.

voting overseas is available for Singapore citizens abroad who have been registered as overseas electors. They may cast their votes at the overseas polling stations allotted to them.


my comments:

voters must vote wisely because every single vote counts and there can be no turning back the clock once the vote has been cast.

which is similar to buying insurance.

why?

primarily because taking up insurance comes with the commitment to pay premiums over a very long term time horizon.

i know of many consumers who have not exercised the right choices and is living with the belief that they have, and in their own words, 'been over-insured.'

some of these examples are:

one is a private banker family with 2 young daughters paying more than $30,000.00 in annual premiums and yet, does not even have the most fundamental insurance which is a comprehensive h&s plan. this family has chosen to stay with the employer's group h&s plan which at best is not even comparable to an 'as-charged' shield plan with most in-patient benefits dollar-capped.

another high net-worth businessman told me he's overinsured only for me to find out his $5 million dollar coverage rests on a personal accident plan without any other insurance coverage.

and yet another successful female entrepreneur in her late 50s has sole reliance on her husband's group term coverage.

and so on and so forth.

i get the chills everytime i think of this group of people without any comprehensive wealth protrection planning but then, this is why i'm in the business and it is my stated mission to reach out to 'save' as many individuals and families as possible.