The Presidential Election 2017 is reserved for the Malay community. For an
individual to qualify as a candidate, he or she must receive both a Certificate of
Eligibility from the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC), and a Community
Certificate from the Community Committee (CC) stating that he or she belongs to the
Malay community.

Applications made
Five individuals applied for a Certificate of Eligibility. Of these five individuals,
three declared that they belonged to the Malay community and applied for Malay
Community Certificates.

Decisions on Certificate of Eligibility
The PEC has decided to issue one Certificate of Eligibility.

Decisions on Community Certificates

The CC referred all three applications for a Malay Community Certificate to the
Malay Community Sub-Committee (MCSC), and the MCSC has concluded that all
three applicants belong to the Malay community. The CC will therefore issue three
Malay Community Certificates.

As this Presidential Election is reserved for the Malay community, the CC
rejected the two community declarations where the declarants did not declare
themselves to be a member of the Malay community.

Individuals issued with both Certificates
One individual will be issued with both the Certificate of Eligibility and the Malay
Community Certificate.

Notification to candidates
The Elections Department has notified all five individuals on the outcome of
their applications. Reasons were also given to the unsuccessful applicants for a
Certificate of Eligibility. The PEC and the Elections Department will not, in the first
instance, publish the names of the unsuccessful applicants or the reasons given to
them. This is to give effect to the recommendation of the Constitutional Commission
that unsuccessful applicants should not be disclosed to the public, to reduce the
prospect of potential applicants being dissuaded from stepping forward to contest the
elections. An unsuccessful applicant is free to publish the reasons given to him or her.