First in, last out: At the frontlines of GE2025

Singapore witnessed one of its biggest national events of the year as citizens took to the polls in the Singapore General Election 2025 (“GE2025”) on 3 May.

But it wasn’t just the party candidates and their volunteers who were busy during this period. Xponents from several divisions within HTX, as well as their Singapore Police Force (SPF) counterparts, also toiled behind the scenes to ensure that public safety was not compromised.

Over 150 Xponents supported GE2025 operations across at least eight domains of expertise, ranging from infrastructure, to communications command and control.

Setting up infrastructure

As with every big event, getting the venue ready was a foundational step. From tentages to watch towers to crowd barricades to security command posts, HTX’s Building & Infrastructure (B&I) had it all covered.

Working closely with the SPF, the team of 10 oversaw the end-to-end planning, implementation and safety compliance of all infrastructure and equipment at dozens of election meeting sites, nomination centres and assembly centres across the country.

According to Goh See Wee, Deputy Director of B&I, the biggest challenges the team encountered were uneven terrains and tight turnarounds, as some of the venues were public and school facilities with ongoing operations.

“You could say we were the first in, last out. It’s very hard work, but the results of our dedication showed itself,” said See Wee.

And with large crowds expected at these venues, members of HTX’s Q Team Centre of Expertise (CoE) also deployed the Q Crowd Counter – an AI-powered tool which estimates crowd sizes from photographs taken by officers on the ground – to monitor crowd sizes and keep attendees safe.

“We worked hard to improve the accessibility of the Q Crowd Counter to support the SPF in their crowd control measures,” explained Yeo Kiat Nern, an engineer from the Q Team.

Getting connected

Beyond infrastructure like stages and fences, plenty of systems and networks were also running in the background as the SPF helped keep the venues secure. These ranged from walkie-talkies used by officers on the ground, to security cameras, crisis management systems, backend transmissions, and WAN and LAN networks.

Providing these systems and networks were more than 100 members from HTX’s Enterprise Communications & Digital Infrastructure (xCDI), ICT Infrastructure, Operations Systems (Ops Systems), and Policing Programme Management Centre (PPMC) teams.

Just like their B&I colleagues, these Xponents were constantly rushing to set up and tear down networks needed by command posts. In fact, all of them were on standby around the clock, ever ready to respond to issues with connectivity, cyber concerns, power supply or communication equipment.

The teams worked shifts, straight out of command posts at the nomination centres, election meeting sites, assembly centres and polling stations, as well as data and sustainment centres, to resolve issues immediately.

Lim Jee Yen, Deputy Director of the Joint ICT Infrastructure team, shared that his team didn’t only get cracking when GE2025 started – they had to assess and ensure that “ground communications across potential sites were able to support SPF’s operations” long before the election was called for.

In areas with large crowds, such as at an election meeting site, network congestion can affect network connectivity and, in turn, SPF’s ability to maintain comprehensive ground communications and situational awareness. To address this issue, xCDI had been working closely with technology partners to develop a robust solution.

Together with SPF and these partners, the team even facilitated in-depth user training to ensure smooth operations.

“We worked 10am-10pm shifts to support SPF both on-site and remotely. Everything had to happen quick – once activated, we had to respond to different locations to help users rectify any issues with connectivity,” said Eddie Tan, Engineer, Wireless Access and Sensor Deployment, xCDI.

Meanwhile, another team from PPMC was tasked with ensuring that core systems such as emergency call operations remain available and effective.

A total of 18 Xponents from PPMC assisted with operations related to the General Elections.