Singapore Gets First Female President Without a Vote Singapore's President-elect Halimah Yacob and her husband Mohammed Abdullah Alhabshee address supporters before leaving the nomination centre in Singapore September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su Halimah Yacob, a former speaker of parliament, was declared elected as Singapore’s first woman president on Wednesday, after the returning officer announced she was the sole candidate to qualify for the contest. Aiming to strengthen a sense of inclusivity in the multicultural city-state, Singapore had decreed the presidency, a largely ceremonial post, would be reserved for candidates from the minority Malay community this time. “Although this is a reserved election, I‘m not a reserved president,” Halimah said in a speech at the elections department office. “I‘m a president for everyone.” Halimah’s experience as house speaker automatically qualified her under the nomination rules. Of the four other applicants, two were not Malay...