So PAP won 82 seats out of a possible 84 (Delayed news)

So PAP has won 82 seats again, the same number they won for 1997 and 2001 GE.  However, the 2 oppositions has increased their share of votes in their 2 wards.  The WP managed to get about 62% in Hougang and the SDA managed to get about 55% in Potong Pasir.  A closely watch GRC turn out to be a strong win for PAP.  In Aljunied GRC, the PAP won with about 55% of total vote cast.

Overall, PAP won with an average of 66.6% of the total vote cast nation wide.  Some people find that this is not consider a strong mandate for the ruling party but I find that PAP is being modest.  This result can already be considered as a land slide victory.

Labour Day

It was Labour day yesterday and same as the rest of the world, Singapore’s Labour day is a public holiday.

But how different that similarity ends.  In several countries, there were protests everywhere, even in US.  Singapore is a rather quiet place, people all around enjoying the public holiday.

Whatever human rights group want to say, Singapore is a fine place to be.  What does all these protests get for the people in all these countries?  Blood shed but the economy stay the same.  Human rights the same as these western countries?  No thanks, I would rather the same kind of human rights rule stay in Singapore.  It is not as powerful as those in western countries, but we have a more organize and safer society.

East side is hotter

It seems that this year electoral contest happen all at the east side of our island, except for some Single Member Constituences (SMCs).  East side will see all the battles and hear all the rallies, but west side will seem much forgotten.  This is because all Group Representitive Constituences (GRCs) on the west side of Singapore have been taken by PAP on nomination day because they are all uncontested.

Opposition parties seems to have gang up together and contest only the east side of Singapore island.  One of my friend suggested that this is because east side resisdents are more well off than their west side counterpart, thus they will be more willing to vote in the opposition.  This is quite true as richer people will care less about bread and butter issues and focus more on other intellectual issues like the need to have an alternative voice in the parliament.

I would like to believe that the opposition have done their homework and gather a certain statistic from the past elections that shows east side being more supportive of the opposition.  If this is true then it will mean that opposition have become more organize and one day they will really be of a first world standard.

PAP was not return to power on Nomination day

So this is a change since 1988 election.  PAP walkover with only 37 seats out of a possible 84, 6 shy of the majority that they need to form the government.  The opposition parties fielded a total of 47 candidates to deny PAP a return to power on Nomination day.

I think that the opposition parties are finding that the by-election effect is more detrimental.  With opposition parties all trying to grow, contesting less than 42 seats will definitely result in multi-corner fights, which always turn out to be in favour of the ruling party.

The by-election strategy is also not effective enough.  After implementing the by-election effect in 1991, which see them winning 4 seats, the next 2 elections see their seats maintain at 2.  Compare with 1991, PAP gain 4% of total vote cast in 1997 and a further 10% in 2001.  Thus this shows that the by-election strategy wasn’t effective (though you can say that this is because PAP counter the strategy with upgrading benefit).

So will PM Lee at the strong mandate that he wants?  This will only be known at the end of Saturday 6th May 2006.

Will PAP be returned to power on Nomination day?

So tomorrow is Nomination day for Singapore.  It will be such an interesting day, as we will then know whether PAP will once again be returned to power on Nomination day.  This was a tactic devised by opposition party to create a by-election effect.  Since Singaporean was afraid to vote down PAP, by not contesting more than half of the electoral seats, PAP will be returned to power on Nomination day, thus Singaporean will be more willing to vote in opposition candidates.

This by-election effect was created in 1991 and that year the opposition won 4 seats out of the possible 84, the highest number of seats ever won by the opposition.  This year, however, the opposition have decided not to use this tactic anymore and they have decided to contest 55 out of the total 84 seats.  But this might be just a tactic used by the opposition, all will only be confirmed on Nomination day, which is tomorrow.

We will know by noon tomorrow and it will be an interesting day.

Polling

So the date is finally out.  After much guessing and waiting, the date is finally confirmed.

Singaporean will go to poll on 6th May 2006.  The President of Singapore, Mr. S R Nathan, on the advice of our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, dissolved Parliament and issued the Writ of Election on 20th April 2006. Nomination day will be on 27th April 2006.

So its the time again to go to rallies and listen to what each candidate has to say about the future of Singapore.  With new faces coming up in the opposition and being the first time PM Lee lead his party to the poll, this election will be an interesting one.

So let the rallies begin!