ANNUAL ELECTION FOR THE COUNCIL OF 2021
Our Ref: LS/1/CouElect/20-01/DLT To: Practitioner Members of the Law Society of Singapore ANNUAL ELECTION FOR THE COUNCIL OF 2021 Pursuant to section 51(1) of the Legal Profession Act, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN of the following: | |||||||||||||
| 1 | Date of Nomination: 12 October 2020 Nominations will open at 8.00 am and close at 2.00 pm on the same day. | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Date of Election: 30 October 2020 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Venue where ballot shall take place: The Annual Election of Council of the Law Society will be conducted by way of Internet Voting (“i-voting“). | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Names of the 3 Scrutineers: | ||||||||||||
VACANCIES IN THE COUNCIL | |||||||||||||
| 5 | The term of office of the following members of the Council ceases on 31 December 2020:
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| 6 | As a result of the pending expiry of the term of office of the members named above, and pursuant to section 51 of the Legal Profession Act, ten (10) vacancies in the Council have to be filled. Two (2) of these vacancies are to be filled by appointees of the Minister for Law and one (1) of these vacancies is to be filled by an appointee of the Council. (a) Senior Category (Not less than 15 years’ standing) Four (4) seats are to be filled by advocates and solicitors with practising certificates in force, who are of not less than 15 years’ standing as of 12 October 2020. (b) Middle Category (Less than 15 years’ but not less than 5 years’ standing) One (1) seat is to be filled by an advocate and solicitor with a practising certificate in force, who is of less than 15 years’ but not less than 5 years’ standing as of 12 October 2020. (c) Junior Category (Less than 5 years’ standing) Two (2) seats are to be filled by advocates and solicitors with practising certificates in force, who are of less than 5 years’ standing as of 12 October 2020. NOTE: The years of standing of an advocate and solicitor shall be calculated from his or her date of admission as an advocate and solicitor. | ||||||||||||
NOMINATION FORM | |||||||||||||
| 7 | The candidate nominated for election must be a person qualified to be a candidate under section 49 of the Legal Profession Act. | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Nomination of candidates shall be made on the prescribed Nomination Form. The Nomination Form may be downloaded here. Every Nomination Form shall contain the name of only one (1) candidate and his/her consent must be endorsed thereon. The Nomination Form must be signed by the nominee and two (2) solicitors qualified in a like manner under section 49 of the Legal Profession Act and under the same membership category as the candidate nominated. | ||||||||||||
| 9 | The duly completed Nomination Form must be submitted by e-mail to ceooffice@lawsoc.org.sg between 8.00 am to 2.00 pm on Monday, 12 October 2020. Such submission of Nomination Form should not be construed as a successful submission until an e-mail acknowledgement of a successful submission is given by Secretariat, which shall be given before 4.00 pm on the same day. | ||||||||||||
| 10 | Should any nominee be required by Secretariat to amend his or her Nomination Form, the duly amended Form must be re-submitted by e-mail to ceooffice@lawsoc.org.sg no later than 6.00 pm on Monday, 12 October 2020. Notification of any required amendments shall be given by Secretariat via e-mail to a nominee before 4.00 pm on the same day. | ||||||||||||
| 11 | Secretariat will correspond with each nominee only via the e-mail address that the nominee uses to submit his or her Nomination Form. | ||||||||||||
| 12 | Secretariat is obliged to reject any nomination form that is incomplete, contains any inaccurate information or submitted not in accordance with the instructions contained in paras 7 to 11 above. | ||||||||||||
ELIGIBILITY TO VOTE | |||||||||||||
| 13 | Every advocate and solicitor who has in force a practising certificate as of the date of nomination, 12 October 2020, shall vote for the election of members of Council as follows: (a) Senior Category If an election of the members of the Council in the senior category is required, every advocate and solicitor with a practising certificate in force, who is of not less than 15 years’ standing on the date of nomination, shall vote for the election of the members of the Council in the senior category. (b) Middle Category If an election of the members of the Council in the middle category is required, every advocate and solicitor with a practising certificate in force, who is of less than 15 years’ but not less than 5 years’ standing on the date of nomination, shall vote for the election of the members of the Council in the middle category. (c) Junior Category If an election of the members of the Council in the junior category is required, every advocate and solicitor with a practising certificate in force, who is of less than 5 years’ standing on the date of nomination, shall vote for the election of the members of the Council in the junior category. | ||||||||||||
VOTING IS COMPULSORY | |||||||||||||
| 14 | Voting is compulsory and shall be done via i-voting. Reference is made to section 50(2) of the Legal Profession Act:
NOTE: The i-voting process does not preclude a member who is required to vote but is unable to do so at such an election, because he is not in Singapore at the time of the election or has a good and sufficient reason for not doing so, from writing to the Registrar, Supreme Court (and not the Law Society of Singapore) to request for a waiver of the voting requirement AFTER 30 OCTOBER 2020 (i.e. after the date of the election). | ||||||||||||
GENERAL INFORMATION | |||||||||||||
| 15 | As at the date of this notice, the following members of the Council will continue to serve in office until 31 December 2021:
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| 16 | The current term of appointment of the following Statutory Members of Council shall come to an end on 31 December 2020: (a) M Rajaram @ Murugiah Rajaram | ||||||||||||
NOTICE OF PERSONS NOMINATED | |||||||||||||
| 17 | A further notice setting out the names of the nominees and the names of the persons nominating the nominees shall be disseminated to members by e-mail as well as posted on the website of The Law Society of Singapore at www.lawsociety.org.sg after 12 October 2020. | ||||||||||||
Yours faithfully Delphine Loo Tan Chief Executive Officer for and on behalf of The Council of The Law Society of Singapore | |||||||||||||
