SINGAPORE – President-elect Halimah Yacob will not only become Singapore’s first woman president, but she will also be the first to live in a Housing Board flat during her term.
Shortly after being declared the winner in a walkover, she told reporters that she had no plans to move out of her family home in Yishun .
“I’m still staying in Yishun,” said Madam Halimah Yacob, 63, when asked where she would be living after becoming president.
“It is a very nice, comfortable place and I have been living there for many years,” she added.
Her husband, Mr Mohamed Abdullah Alhabshee, 63, quipped that there was no need to move, as the house was “as huge as a penthouse”.
The jumbo flat is made up of a four-room and a five-room flat, and is where Madam Halimah has lived with her family for over 30 years.
Madam Halimah and her husband have two sons and three daughters, aged 26 to 35.
Asked about security arrangements, Madam Halimah said: “I will leave it to the security department. I think they know how to secure the area.”
As Speaker of Parliament before she stepped down to contest in the presidential election reserved for Malay candidates, she already had some security arrangements.
Madam Halimah said living in the flat also helped to keep her healthy, as she would try to take the stairs up and down to her sixth-floor flat, instead of the lift.
She was answering a question from a reporter who asked about the status of her health.
She said: “The status of my health is very good. Every morning I exercise at least 45 minutes.”
She added that she believed she would get ample exercise at the grounds of the Istana, where she will be working out of as president.
“I think the Istana grounds are very big, it gives me a chance to walk around further and keep fit,” she said.
Madam Halimah will be sworn in as Singapore’s eighth president and first Malay president in 47 years on Thursday (Sept 14).