With polling in the Bukit Batok by-election nearing its final stage, there is heightened speculation about who will be the eventual winner.
Singapore has banned the publication of opinion surveys and speculative reports on eventual winners.
However, the election commission will release a sample count of the votes as early as in the first hour of counting.
The early indication of who might have won the contest – People's Action Party's Murali Pillai or Singapore Democratic Party's Chee Soon Juan – is expected to be released around 9.30 pm.
The polling closes at 8pm, and the counting will start soon after. Election authorities said the sample count is released to prevent unnecessary speculation about the winner. The indicative result claims an accuracy rate of more than 95 percent.
The indicative result is arrived at through a random count of 100 votes from each of the nine polling stations.
The method was first experimented in the country in the general election last year. In all the constituencies, the final result was in line with the indicative results released in the early stage of counting.
In Bukit Batok, the sample count had shown that PAP candidate David Ong won 74 percent of votes, which was quite close to the eventual result that showed Ong won 73 percent votes.
Last year, the sample result in Bukit Batok came shortly after 9 pm while the final result came in after 1 am.
Meanwhile, the election commission has released details about the places where candidates and their supporters can assemble for the result announcement.
The field near Bukit Batok Industrial Park A and the Bukit Gombak Stadium are the two places the party members and supporters can wait for the results announcements, the police said.
