This is how the front pages of The Straits Times were presented to readers during the recent general election, starting from the day after nomination day to cooling off day.
It has been posited that changes in electoral boundaries do not affect the country-wide distribution of votes.
It's not correct.
Die-hard PAP and Opposition supporters will vote PAP and Opposition, respectively, regardless of whether they are in one constituency or another.
But voters in the middle ground or who haven't made up their minds will assess the candidates standing for election in their constituencies.
If the candidates are incumbents, especially if they are from a constituency that the voters have moved to or have been moved to by the Electoral Boundaries Committee, have the incumbents lived up to the voters' expectations in Parliament (how often have they been present, how many questions have they asked and what is the quality of these questions, how often have they presented suggestions and what is the quality of their suggestions) and in looking after the constituents and the constituencies?
If the candidates are incumbents in single member constituencies that have been absorbed into group representation constituencies, the other members of the group will have to be assessed as well.
If the candidates are not the incumbents, do they or their party deserve your vote?
In conclusion, it's not correct to think that changes in electoral boundaries do not affect the country-wide distribution of votes.
Shortly before Nomination Day for General Election 2025, residents in Bukit Gombak SMC said they found a glossy 112-page document entitled Bukit Gombak A Home We Love in their letter boxes.
The document traces the developments in Bukit Gombak over the preceding five years under PAP MP for Bukit Gombak ward and Adviser to Bukit Gombak GROs, Ms Low Yen Ling.
Photographs of Ms Low appear throughout the document.
While the document does not say anything about voting for Ms Low or PAP, its timing is note worthy, serving to showcase just ahead of General Election 2025 what Ms Low has done for Bukit Gombak in the preceding five years (the last General Election was held five years ago). Ms Low is PAP's candidate for Bukit Gombak SMC in General Election 2025.
The document is produced by People's Association, an organisation funded by taxpayers.
Updated on 1:20pm 5 May 2025. Title amended by adding "MP's".
Deputy prime minister Gan Kim Yong was moved from Chua Chu Kang GRC to Punggol GRC, presumably to fortify People's Action Party team in Punggol GRC against a strong The Workers' Party team led by Senior Counsel Harpreet Singh Nehal.
What if Punggol GRC voters voted out PAP and with it, Mr Gan?
1. PAP parachuted Mr Gan from a relatively safe Chua Chu Kang GRC to Punggol GRC. Should Punggol GRC voters feel compelled to vote for PAP just to keep Mr Gan in the Cabinet? Why should this responsibility fall on them?
2. Mr Gan would stand a higher chance of being re-elected if he stayed in Chua Chu Kang GRC although even there, there are uncertainties resulting from parts of Tengah being added to it and Bukit Gombak ward being removed from it and made into an SMC.
3. Mr Gan would stand a good chance of being re-elected if he were parachuted to an SMC. PAP used to think, and probably still thinks, that GRCs makes the party impregnable against the opposition. Until Aljunied GRC fell to WP in 2011 and Sengkang GRC fell, also to WP, in 2020. As more GRCs fall to the opposition, PAP may just abolish GRCs, which are absurd?
4. How important or indispensable is Mr Gan? He was not elected to PAP's Central Executive Committee late last year nor even co-opted, even though he was DPM then. So strange.
5. PAP should learn to govern with half the seats plus one in Parliament. Any more is a bonus.
6. The number of political office holders is mind boggling. There are ministers, senior ministers of state, ministers of state, senior parliamentary secretaries and parliamentary secretaries.
The PAP government has introduced a bill to amend Singapore's Constitution that will allow the President to accept and hold an office in a foreign or international organisation in his/her private capacity if the Cabinet considers it to be in the national interest. [1]
The bill is intended to allow President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to continue with his roles as chairman of the board of trustees of the Group of Thirty, a member of the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and co-chair of the Advisory Board for the UN Human Development Report [2] inasmuch as, when the bill is passed by Parliament, it will be deemed to have come into operation retroactively on 14 September 2023, the day on which Tharman was sworn into office as President.
Someone apparently had forgotten that Tharman would contravene the Constitution when he did not relinquish his roles in the international organisations when he was sworn in as President and would continue to contravene the Constitution barring changes (which the Bill intends to make).
Tharman should decide which is more important to him: President of the Republic of Singapore or his role in the international organisations.
If Tharman cannot operate within the Constitution, he should not have offered himself as a candidate for the Presidential Election and, having been elected and sworn in, should resign as President.
The PAP government will claim that Tharman's continued roles in the international organisations are in the national interest but they can only be in the national interest if Tharman is representing Singapore in an official capacity, not as a private individual.
Also, other members of the international organisations will view Tharman as President of Singapore, rather than a private individual.
Everything, good or bad, that Tharman does in the international organisations will reflect on Singapore.
The Constitution should not be amended to accommodate one individual.
Notes
1. Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment No. 3) Bill 35/2023.
2. Bill proposes to allow president, ministers to take on international roles in private capacities (The Straits Times, 8 Nov 2023 8:38 pm)
