Wong Souk Yee v AG [2019] SGCA 25 intention as to what should occur where there is a vacancy of a single seat in a GRC. However, it is common ground that the Respondent’s First Interpretation depends on a “strained” interpretation of Art 49(1), in the sense that the express words of Art 49(1) cannot fairly bear the meaning put forward. The words “seat of a Member” do not distinguish between the seat of a GRC Member and that of an SMC Member, and hence cannot be interpreted to cover both types of seats while at the same time mandating different outcomes in the event of a vacancy in the two different types of seats. In order to arrive at such a meaning, the first portion of Art 49(1) would have to be construed as if it reads: “Whenever the seat of a Member in a single member constituency, or the seats of all Members in a group representation constituency …”. 63 The Respondent submits that we could permissibly do this by applying either a rectifying construction or an updating construction. A rectifying construction involves the addition or substitution of words to give effect to Parliament’s manifest intentions. It is founded on the basis of rectifying “obvious drafting errors” and “plain cases of drafting mistakes” on the part of the Legislature (see Diggory Bailey & Luke Norbury, Bennion on Statutory Interpretation (LexisNexis, 7th Ed, 2017) (“Bennion”) at pp 425–426). An updating construction, on the other hand, does not rest on the existence of any drafting error, but is premised instead on the assumption that Parliament intends that the court will apply, in respect of a continuing statute, a construction which continuously updates the wording of the statute so as to allow for its application to circumstances as they change after the time the statute was initially framed (see Comptroller of Income Tax v MT [2006] 3 SLR (R) 688 (“CIT”) at [44]). 64 In our judgment, there are questions as to whether these tools of statutory interpretation, which were developed in the context of ordinary legislation, may or should apply to the extent of modifying the express words of a constitutional 26