25,000 "doggies" trained for elections

[General Veers]

Singapore
Mar 23, 2010

25,000 trained for elections

<!-- by line --> By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent
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Some 25,000 public servants have been trained in preparation for the next general election, the Elections Department said yesterday. -- ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG

SOME 25,000 public servants have been trained in preparation for the next general election, the Elections Department said yesterday. Responding to queries from The Straits Times, a department spokesman said that about 90 per cent of the 28,000 public servants identified to be election officials have been trained in the past 1-1/2 years. The Elections Department said it had been sending out letters to public servants progressively since October 2008, informing them to attend training. About 20,000 election officials are typically deployed during an election, it added. The next general election is due by February 2012. A presidential election is also due next year. For the last general election in May 2006, public servants were called up for training from November 2004.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Watchman]

They draw them from ministries and teaching profession .

Basically civil servants .

Paid $20 an hour with tax payer's money as ushers .