The register for the 24 constituencies will open for a fortnight from this Friday, and registration for overseas voting can be made from Friday to October 18.

A raft of recently approved electoral laws included provision for Singapore to have overseas voting for the first time, and registration centres have been set up in Australia, China, Hong Kong, England and the United States.

"Opening the registers of electors is a sign that the election is just around the corner," Melvin Tan, communications director of the political watchdog Think Centre told AFP.

Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party, said the signs continued to point to a December poll, although the government is only required to give 14 days notice of the election date.

"It's likely to be an election in December. They normally open the rolls about two-to-three months out," Chee told AFP.

"The next thing the government will do is announce the electoral boundaries commission ... (but) they only have to give two weeks notice of the election, five days for nominations and nine days for canvassing," Chee said.

The ruling People's Action Party has a stranglehold on Singapore politics -- holding 89 of the 92 seats in the current parliament, and sweeping every election since 1959, after the former British colony was granted statehood.

Singapore elections are often settled as early as nomination day because of the failure of opposition parties to muster enough candidates to contest 50 percent of seats.

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