Lai Liao: Elections Department Just Announced the Formation of the Electoral Boundaries Committee

I know what some of you are thinking: Oh, elections come liao? This time is elect our President or what ah? When holiday ah? Got Nicole Seah or not? We is vote Trump or what?

I don’t blame you: some of us prefer to read news about the latest bubble teas than about more important stuff, like voting for our next leaders.

So lest you’ve wondering if election is truly coming this weekend, here’s what you need to know.

Elections Department Just Announced Formation of Electoral Boundaries Committee

For a start, read this again: election is definitely coming, but it’s not tomorrow. Or next week. Or next month.

Instead, what’s happened today is merely the first step to the upcoming General Elections, which must be held before April 2021.

And that first step is, of course, to determine which zone you’re in.

To do that, a committee, which comprises a group of people and is chaired by the Secretary to the Prime Minister, will work on reviewing the different zones of elections.

Each zone is either a Group Representation Constituency (GRC), which comprises between three to six Members of Parliament (MPs), or a Single Member Constituency, which comprises just one MP to represent you.

For example, Bukit Batok SMC has one MP, so if you live in Bukit Batok, you vote for one MP.

Jurong GRC has five MPs, so if you live in Jurong, you most probably vote for five MPs in a party.

The entire task of the committee is to review these “zones” and change them if needed.

And today, the committee is being formed.

More SMCs Expected

Before 1988, every zone was a SMC, but as you’d know now, that has since changed.

Currently, there are 16 GRCs and 13 SMCs. In 2016, PM Lee had said that there might be more SMCs for the upcoming elections so that Han Hui Hui can contest alone.

So if you’ve been voting for a group, you might be voting for a person soon.

But let’s face it: the question is, when is the public holiday election going to take place?

History of Timeline

Because we don’t have a crystal ball that can tell the future, the best way to gauge is through the history of timeline.

In the last three elections, the committee came out with the report within two to four months.

Upon the release of the report, the elections would usually be held shortly: in 2001, the Parliament was dissolved a day later, while in 2011, it was dissolved in about two months.

In other words, based on history since we stepped into the twenty-first century, we could be going to the voting stations in less than six months.

And if you’re apolitical like BuffLord95? Here’s a one-sentence summary for you: a new public holiday might come in the next six months.

But who knows: maybe aliens would land in Yishun next month and we’ll all join the United Federation of Planets in six months.