President S. R. Nathan issues Writ of Election on the same day, shortly after the 11th Parliament of Singapore was dissolved by him as well. He also announced that the Nomination Day will be on Wednesday, 27 April 2011.

The Returning Officer, Mr Yam Ah Mee, the new CEO of the People's Association, Mr. , announced that the decisive Polling Day will be on Saturday, 7 May 2011, which will also be a Public Holiday.

The appointment was made by the Prime Minister and published in the online government gazette on Tuesday.

Mr Yam's term as Returning Officer begins on 1 June 2010.

The former Returning Officer was Mr Tan Boon Huat, who has retired.

Unchanged from the previous elections in 2006, there will be 9 Nomination Centres.

A total of 2,311,582 Singaporeans are eligible to vote in the upcoming polls. More than 1/4 will be youths, aged between 21 and 34. Some 200,000 are first-time voters.

The law states that Nomination Day - when candidates head to nomination centres to present their papers - must take place at least five working days (Saturdays included) or the maximum of one month after the writ is issued

Candidates can only start their election campaigns after nominations close and right up to two days before polling day. The campaign period must last at least nine days.

In the last General Election, 47 seats were contested, making it the most-pitched battle since 1988. This time round, the number of seats contested is expected to come close to that fought in 1988, when 86 per cent of seats were contested

There are 87 seats in 27 constituencies - 12 single- member constituencies and 15 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) - to be contested this time round

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