The World’s Most Powerful Passport Keeps a Hold on One Singaporean
An expatriate reflects on why she’s hung onto the city-state’s travel document, and citizenship, after years abroad.
Hi. My name is Divya Balji. I’m 40 years old, and I’ve never exercised my democratic right to vote.
A big part of that has to do with my leaving Singapore as a teenager. It seemed irresponsible to vote for the next government without having lived and worked in the city-state as an adult. Eighteen years in Toronto, one four-year job stint in Singapore and five general elections later, I still haven’t cast a ballot. Inopportunely, I moved back to Singapore the month after the September 2015 elections and left before the July 2020 round. And while I could have registered to vote in 2020 as an overseas elector, we were living in the topsy-turvy world of the Covid-19 pandemic, and I missed the deadline.