The incumbent, Sellapan Ramanathan Nathan, a former ambassador to Washington and internal security chief, said on July 12 he would run for a second term, and the 81-year-old is unlikely to face opposition.

Strict eligibility requirements, such as past experience in heading a statutory board or a company with a paid-up capital of at least S$100 million ($60 million), restrict the number of candidates. Two local candidates have already been rejected, state broadcaster Channel NewsAsia said on Wednesday.

Nathan also ran unopposed in 1999 for his first term as head of state. Until 1993 the president was chosen by parliament.

Nathan, an ethnic Indian born in Singapore, has helped offset the dominance of ethnic Chinese in the government.

Singapore is a polyglot community of ethnic Chinese, Malays and Indians and representatives from all three races have held the post of president, who has the power to veto government budgets and give clemency to convicted criminals.

Nathan's presidency has been marked by harmony with the government and its dominant People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed since independence in 1965.

Nathan's predecessor Ong Teng Cheong, who became Singapore's first elected president in September 1993, had been openly critical of the government.

The announcement of the presidential vote on August 27 - which will be a public holiday -- clears the way for a parliamentary vote later this year or early in 2006.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong -- the son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew -- was handed power in August 2004 and is expected to seek his own mandate.

A parliamentary election does not have to be held until mid-2007, but the city-state's pro-government Straits Times daily on Sunday quoted analysts and a member of parliament as saying they expected a poll as early as the fourth quarter of this year.

A precedent for early elections was set in 1991, when Goh Chok Tong -- prime minister between Lee senior and Lee junior -- called an election just nine months after he was handed power.

Analysts say that to secure strong leadership, Lee Hsien Loong must at least match his party's tally in the last poll in 2001, when Goh won 75 percent of the vote for the PAP, which controls all but two seats in parliament.

Analysts say there is no doubt that the PAP would win a comfortable majority against a cash-strapped opposition.

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