10 Unexpected Things That Happened This Polling Day & The Aftermath That Are Unforgettable


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10 July was one of the, if not the most, exciting day of 2020.

After all, that’s the day where Singaporeans decide how they’ll want to spend their next five years.

And oh boy, was it full of ups and downs.

From yet another u-turn to the most underdog team emerging victorious, here are the 10 most unforgettable moments of GE2020.

1. U-Turn Of ELD’s Glove-Wearing Measure

Previously, when the ELD planned polling day, every voter has to have their temperatures taken, hand sanitised and wear disposable gloves before going on to vote.

However, later in the day, the Elections Department came out to say that voters are no longer required to wear disposable gloves when they go to the voting station.

No, it’s not because they ran out of gloves.

It’s because they realised that this additional step of getting people to wear the gloves in front of the counter makes waiting time even longer.

Since people are already getting their hands sanitised, they don’t have to go the additional step of putting on the gloves.

And this issue cropped up because:

2. Long Queues Early in the Morning

In GE2020, for the first time ever, people were allocated two hours to vote.

With Covid-19 secretly waiting around the corner, they didn’t want a huge crowd at the polling stations.

Admit it, knowing that it’s a public holiday, do you want to spend the entire day waiting at home instead of going out to vote as early as possible and having the rest of the day to yourself?

Image: giphy

Unfortunately, ELD did not make the timebands compulsory and in the morning, the very thing that ELD aimed to avoid occurred—long queues were spotted in several places.


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This led to ELD’s first media release, whereby they said that it was “partly due to the additional safety measures put in place to ensure safe voting.”

They then reiterated that the morning time bands (8am to 12pm) are reserved for senior voters aged 65 years and above to minimise their interaction with younger voters, and urged younger voters who are not accompanying the seniors to vote based on the assigned time-bands, which should be after 12pm.

And because of the long queue, this led to yet another unprecedented move:

3. Extension of Voting Hours to 10pm

Everyone knows voting ends at 8pm—it’s been the same since we were born. But this time, the world’s different and so are the voting hours.

In a move that would surprise even M. Night Shyamalan, the ELD announced that the Returning Officer has extended the polling hours of polling stations in Singapore except polling stations in SHN designated facilities.


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It’ll end at 10pm instead.

As 7pm to 8pm are meant for people on MC or have a fever, the arrangement is that these people can still vote after 8pm if there is no queue in the polling stations. If there are queues, they would be isolated in a separate holding area first and vote only when there is no queue.

Later, ELD said that the “decision to extend polling hours was made because there was still a small number of polling stations with long queues.

“A voter will only be able to vote if he has been issued the ballot paper by close of polls. Given the long queues at these polling stations, to ensure that all voters who had turned up would be able to cast their vote, the RO made the decision to extend polling hours to 10.00 pm.”

Nevertheless, this move wasn’t welcomed by the opposition parties who, for one reason or another, couldn’t have people at the polling stations to monitor the sealing of ballot boxes after 8pm.

Another group of people who aren’t exactly happy with ELD’s move would probably be the media, who had, in one form or another, talked about how long they’ve waited (one claimed to have waited since 5pm) before they had this surprise news pushed onto them.


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Let’s just say that 10 Jul 2020 is probably the best and worst day for many journalists and their cameramen/women in Singapore.

4. We Will Review The Election Process At A Later Time

Many people were wondering what GE2020 would be like.

Would it be similar to post-GE2011 where the government showed their willingness to listen to the people more and address their concerns?

Or would it be similar to post-GE2015 where the government decides that they know best and use their mandate to push through unpopular changes, including a certain presidential election and an increase in water prices?

Judging by PM Lee’s first speech as the newly-re-elected ruling party, it seems to reflect post-GE2011.


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He had said that there were some incidents with Polling Day, and that they will carry an in-depth review of the GE2020 process at a later date.

Nonetheless, he thanked the volunteers and people involved in making the election possible and said PAP will make sure to use their mandate wisely.

If you notice, that’s a different tune from when they insisted that having an election during this period is the right thing to do despite massive (online) protests and not apologise for it.

5. PAP Barely Managed To Squeeze Out A Win At East Coast GRC

On 30 Jun 2020, everyone was shocked when DPM Heng Swee Keat turned up at the nomination centre for East Coast GRC to fight against the Workers’ Party team, including the golden girl, Nicole Seah.

Called a “strategic move”, everyone had no doubt that DPM Heng and his team will win in this GRC by a considerable margin, given how he’s the one announcing the four budgets and all.

And they did. Win, I mean.

However, it wasn’t a decisive victory.


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Final Results:

PAP: 53.41%
WP: 46.59%

The PAP team’s result has actually worsened; In GE2015, PAP beat out WP with 60% of the votes.

But, hey, at least residents at East Coast GRC can finally know the vaunted plan that PAP has drawn up for the area.

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6. GE2020 “Most Underdog” WP Team Won A Second GRC For Their Party

Since we’re on the topic of the results, another Workers’ Party also surprised Singaporeans when they won a second GRC.

The Workers’ Party fielded 4 GRC teams this time around:

  • Aljunied GRC
  • East Coast GRC
  • Marine Parade GRC
  • and Sengkang GRC

Sengkang GRC is the youngest GRC team fielded in the election this year by the Workers’ Party, and Raeesah Khan, the youngest person on the team, is only 26 years old.

Facing them is a team of three veteran political officeholders and a lawyer who is well-known in the Punggol-East area.

The team comprises

  • Mr Ng Chee Meng, chief of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office
  • Dr Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport
  • Mr Amrin Amin, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health
  • Mr Raymond Lye, a new PAP candidate

Even with PM Lee appearing at the Sengkang PAP team’s live video and urging voters not to go for “PAP-lite”, the WP team still managed to squeeze out a win in the new GRC.

Results:

PAP: 47.87%
WP: 52.13%

7. PM Lee’s Ratings Dropped

The analysts and hosts of CNA live broadcast noted that even though the Reform Party lost in all of their areas, party chief Kenneth Jayeratham appears to be positive.

It was speculated that he might be consoled by the fact that in Ang Mo Kio GRC, the largest GRC in Singapore, PM Lee’s results in GE2020 were not as stellar as it was in GE2015.

In the last election, when Ang Mo Kio GRC had 6 seats, PAP beat out RP in a landslide victory with 78% of the votes.

Now, it’s only 71.91%.

Results:

PAP: 71.91%
RP: 28.09%

PM Lee mentioned in his press conference after GE2020 that the results showed the “pain and anxiety” of Singaporeans during this tough crisis and promised that the PAP will use their mandate “wisely”.

And anyways, it’s not just Ang Mo Kio.

Jurong GRC, the constituency we thought would either have 99% or 99.9% of votes going to the PAP, won with just 74.62% of the votes. In the previous election, it got nearly 80%.

The leader of Jurong GRC is so popular that its opponent even posted this image before polling day:

8. West Coast GRC

The Progress Singapore Party might be new but they’re showing Singaporeans and analysts what it’s like to be a party with a lot of pulling power.

Especially at West Coast GRC where the PSP team, led by Dr Tan Cheng Bock, managed to wrest away a huge percentage of votes from the PAP.

Results:

PAP: 51.69%
PSP: 48.31%

Winner: PAP

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”.

In the previous election, PAP beat the Reform Party (RP) by more than a 50,000 vote margin to retain West-Coast GRC.

Even though PSP lost in all the areas that they’ve contested, Dr Tan Cheng Bock seems upbeat while talking to the media after the results are out.

Meanwhile, political analysts are curious about the future of PSP, given that in 5 years’ time, Dr Tan Cheng Bock would be 85 years old, and PlayStation 6 might be out.

But for their maiden GE, the analysts acknowledged that the PSP had put up a good fight.

9. GE2020 Results Show Two Best Moments

Yesterday was exciting, tense and exhilarating. Yet there are still moments of levity that can be observed in the 7-hour-long broadcast.

The first is, of course, Jamus Lim from WP. After all, what better way to show you’re connected to people on the ground by saying “it warms the cockles of my heart” with a finger heart sign

Image: YouTube (CNA)

And also connect with the elderly by speaking in Hokkien with no trace of his kantang-ness:

Image: YouTube (CNA)

Legit, he said that. You can hear it here.

The second is Tan Chuan-jin of the PAP.

He’s not afraid to voice out his own mistakes

Visit a long-time opponent in the political sphere

And while there was a lot of “thank yous” going around last night and early morning today, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin was the only one to actually thank the media for their hard work and coverage over the past nine days.

You can hear the soundbite here.

And check out the happy grins on CNA hosts’ faces after hearing him say that:

Image: YouTube (CNA)

“Yeah, well, they’ve been running around and we’ve been running after them trying to get footage and all.” #WhenYoureHappyButYouDonWannaShowIt

No wonder these two men are the internet darlings at the moment.

10. 2nd Worst Results For The PAP Since Independence

I’m pretty sure you’re already aware that the PAP didn’t put up a good showing this time.

In GE2020, PAP obtained 61.24 per cent of the popular votes in GE2020, a massive drop from the 69.86 per cent in 2015 and the second-lowest percentage since independence.

The lowest is, of course, GE2011 where PAP won 60.14% of the popular votes.

What makes it even more surprising is that this election was called in the midst of a crisis, unlike GE 2011.

In GE2001, Singapore’s PAP government obtained 75.3% of the popular vote when the world was in an unstable state.

In GE2015, Singapore had the SG50 and the death of founding father Lee Kuan Yew, leading them to obtain 69.86% of the popular votes.

Yet in GE2020, in the middle of arguably the worst crisis Singapore can ever be in, the PAP obtained the second-lowest percentage of votes since independence back in 1965.

You can check the GRC results here:

And the SMC results here:

Also, you can read more about PM Lee’s reasons and what PAP plans to do next in this article.

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: