5 Closest Fights in GE2020 Whereby the % Won is Fewer Than 10%


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Which GRCs are the closest fights? Is it the highly anticipated West Coast GRC? Or is it Aljunied, where the PAP narrowly lost in the last election?

Well, here are 5 closest fight in GE2020 whereby the % won is fewer than 10%. And these are likely the next few places to watch in GE2025 or GE2026, depending on when it’s coming or whether a crisis is here.

And where better to start than the most exciting and underrated GRC of them all:

Sengkang GRC (4.26%)

Sengkang GRC is a new GRC carved out of several existing GRCs.

Not only that, but this is also the GRC that features a battle between David and Goliath (the story where one side has an overwhelming chance of victory) and David actually came out on top.

Results:

PAP: 47.87%
WP: 52.13%

Winner: WP

The Workers’ Party (WP) team here is the youngest and least experienced team out of all the GRC teams that WP has fielded in GE2020.

  • Jamus Lim
  • Raeesah Khan
  • Louis Chua
  • He Ting Ru

And out of the entire team, only team leader He Ting Ru has contested in a General Election before.

And to top it off, the PAP team that contested in this area is no joke either and has three political officeholders and a lawyer who has been walking the ground for a while now.

  • Ng Chee Meng
  • Lam Pin Min
  • Amrin Amin
  • Raymond Lye

And yet, despite PM Lee lending his support and the Raeesah Khan saga, the young team managed to emerge victorious from the competition.

This makes it the first time an opposition party manage to wrest two GRCs away from the PAP and analysts say it’s now up to the young team to ensure that WP has a strong base to expand outwards from.

East Coast GRC (6.82%)

Another WP-PAP battle, the results in East Coast GRC completely blindsided everyone.

When DPM Heng Swee Keat, the man with the plan and the announcer of not one, not two but four budgets, turned up at the nomination centre for East Coast GRC, WP seemingly gave up on the area, calling it a “strategic move” by the PAP.


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Whether he moved there for Nicole Seah or not didn’t matter. Everyone thought that the PAP team has this in the bag.

But results proved closer than anyone could have ever imagined.

Results:

PAP: 53.41%
WP: 46.59%

Winner: PAP


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What a rollercoaster ride this GRC has been through.

Here’s PAP’s team:

  • Heng Swee Keat
  • Maliki Osman
  • Jessica Tan
  • Cheryl Chan
  • Tan Kiat How

Here’s WP’s team:

  • Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim
  • Kenneth Foo
  • Terence Tan
  • Dylan Ng
  • Nicole Seah

In GE2015, PAP beat out WP with 60% of the votes but it has dropped by 6.59% in GE2020.

This means that next election, East Coast GRC is still a place to be watched and DPM Heng is still in the running for prime minister.

And we can finally see what the East Coast plan is all about and whether it includes the people from Pulau Ubin.


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West Coast GRC (3.38%)

This is the showing that made Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Dr Tan Cheng Bock sound happy despite losing in all of the areas, according to political analysts.

After all, the west of Singapore has always been regarded as one of the strongholds for the PAP.

Unfortunately, the margins this time weren’t as wide as PAP had expected.

Results:

PAP: 51.69%
PSP: 48.31%


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Winner: PAP

Previously in GE2015, the PAP team beat out Reform Party with a more than 50,000 vote difference and since 1997 when the GRC was created, PAP has never won with less than 66.6% of the votes.

Yet, it’s now been whittled down to less than 4%.

Yes, it’s that close. You can say that Dr Tan Cheng Bock is indeed a person who’s now used to the phrase “so close yet so far”.

This election, the PAP team for West Coast GRC includes:

  • S Iswaran
  • Desmond Lee
  • Ang Wei Neng
  • Rachel Ong
  • Foo Mee Har

PSP team includes:

  • Tan Cheng Bock
  • Hazel Poa
  • Leong Wai Mun
  • Jeffrey Khoo
  • Nadarajah Loganathan

Now, all PSP has to do is to ensure continuity (like what Mr Low Thia Khiang did for WP) and we’ll likely see a stronger PSP come back next election.

After all, most of their candidates actually did really well for their maiden elections. The only problem is that Dr Tan Cheng Bock is the star for the party and he could be 85 years old by the time the next GE comes.


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Also, the two available NCMP seats should be given to two losing candidates here.

Bukit Panjang SMC (7.48%)

Other than the Workers’ Party (WP) and the PSP, analysts agreed that the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) put up a good showing in GE2020 as well.

The party has finally taken out Professor Paul Tambyah from the GRC team and fielded him as an individual at Bukit Panjang SMC.

The seat in Bukit Panjang SMC was previously won by PAP’s Dr Teo Ho Pin. He outdid SDP’s Khung Wai Yeen, garnering 68.4% of the votes.

Image: Facebook (Khung Wai Yeen 江伟贤- SDP)

It was expected that Mr Khung would once again compete for the Bukit Panjang SMC seat since he was seen on the ground at Bukit Panjang meeting members of the public.

But SDP chairman, Paul Tambyah, one of the most respected opposition party member, stepped up to contest in this SMC.

Dr Tambyah is a professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and was initially expected to contest for the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.

He is an infectious disease expert who will be heading the Massachusetts-based International Society of Infectious Diseases in 2022.

He ran against Mr Liang Eng Hwa in GE2020.

Mr Liang served residents in Zhenghua for the past 14 years as part of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.

Image: PAP

And despite his pessimism, Professor Tambyah performed the best out of the SMC contests, losing with a 7.48% difference.

Results:

PAP: 53.74%
SDP: 46.26%

Winner: PAP

As for why analysts felt that SDP put up a good showing? That’s because the next close SMC fight is also contested by an SDP candidate.

Bukit Batok SMC (9.6%)

This is one everyone’s looking forward to, and it’s not because the Goody Feed office is housed in Bukit Batok.

The seat in Bukit Batok SMC was previously won by People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Mr David Ong in 2015, but he later resigned after there were allegations that he was involved in an extra-marital affair.

Following the incident, Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) Dr Chee Soon Juan went up against PAP’s Mr Murali Pillai to contest for the seat in 2016.

Image: PAP

Mr Murali eventually won the seat and took over Mr Ong.

Image: Facebook (Chee Soon Juan 徐顺全)

During this year’s General Election, Dr Chee ran against Mr Murali. You’d know who Dr Chee is; the man has been involved in politics even before you were born, and while he has lost in all, he’s never once given up.

This election, he, once again, lost to his long-time rival, though the results are a tad better:

Results:

PAP: 54.80%
SDP: 45.20%

Winner: PAP

In the 2017 by-election, he got 38.79% of the votes instead.

With both stars of the SDP achieving such tight results, analysts are optimistic that if SDP is able to strive on and build upon their base, we might be looking at two more SMCs falling into oppositions’ hands in the next GE. Maybe.

One thing for sure, though; Dr Chee’s supporters would be gladdened to know that he had promised, on live TV, that the SDP will carry on doing the work that they’ve been doing.

And on a side note, politicians have been talking about NCMP (Non-Constituency Member of Parliament) in recent days. So, what’s an NCMP? Do you know that it’s just like an MP but the allowance is much lower? Watch this video to find out more: