It was as exciting as Singapore politics could get.
My eyes were glued on Channel News Asia for live coverage of the elections.
Results were announced from a central location – the Elections Department – while party supporters assembled in pre-allocated areas.
I thought this took out the fun of getting the results right in the constituency where seats were being contested. In the past, as the results were being read out, you could hear the crowds behind the camera cheering as they knew from the numbers who had won.
Channel News Asia’s coverage was awful. Audio was lost when PM Lee was interviewed. (Who’s going to get a good spanking at CNA?) Melissa Hyak looked mostly out of control as the results came faster than her political analyst guests could comment on what happened at the polls.
Lucky for them, nothing much happened. Parliament’s balance is still exactly the same. Two seats to Low Thia Khiang and Chiam See Tong. Nude enthusiast photographer Steve Chia lost his Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) seat.
The NCMP position allows into Parliament an opposition member who gets the highest number of votes but doesn’t win.
Of course, it was a happy situation for both Chiam and Low, who got even more votes compared to the last elections. This despite the PAP sending SM Goh Chok Tong to back the PAP candidates and dangle the $180 million upgrading carrot.
Good for you Potong Pasir and Hougang!
In the PAP GRC, PM Lee Hsien Loong and team garned 60+% of the votes. He was up against some untested unknowns from the Worker’s Party. The youngest being around 26 years old.
PM Lee can talk about WP’s branding and so on, but he can’t deny the statistics. In my opinion, it’s not a good win. The PAP in Sembawang GRC got 70+% of the votes. Now that’s more like a resounding win. Maybe they should name Khaw PM instead.
Because of WP’s good show against the incumbents in Aljunied, the NCMP seat is now available to one of the candidates from the WP’s team. The WP’s Aljunied team was lead by Sylvia Lim who gave a generous losing speech by congratulating her PAP opponents. I think if the WP continue to work really hard, they could wrestle this GRC from PAP.
Overall, the proportion of PAP votes were generally lower compared to previous elections. And I anticipate that in the next elections, the PAP’s proportion will decrease again. It’ll get harder and harder for PAP to get votes as citizens demand more from their MPs. Upgrading programmes will be considered a right rather than a priviledge.
I look forward to the day when we have more opposition members in Parliament. I think 10-20 opposition candidates would make a more lively Parliament and this in turn, will pique Singaporeans’ interest in politics.
Well, mine at least.