The two independent candidates in this year’s General Election — the first such contenders since the 2001 polls — have each lost their election deposit of S$14,500.

Blogger Han Hui Hui, who ran in the single-seat ward of Radin Mas, garnered 10 per cent of the votes in a three-cornered fight won by Mr Sam Tan of the People’s Action Party (PAP). Mr Tan won the seat with 77.25 per cent, or 20,230 votes; while the Reform Party’s Kumar Appavoo received 12.7 per cent.

At Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency, independent candidate Samir Salim Neji garnered only 150 votes, or 0.6 per cent of the total.

… Said Associate Professor Alan Chong from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies: “The independents are, I think, not clued in on the way politics operate in Singapore. You cannot challenge the incumbent by saying: ‘I am a fresh face’.

“You need an organisation and you must have staying power … You cannot run under your own banner out of nowhere.”