Of the GRCs, 10 will have five MPs while eight will have four members.
The boundaries of the opposition-held Aljunied GRC were also redrawn for the first time since the 2011 hustings.
The EBRC was tasked to “keep the average size of GRCs, the proportion of Members of Parliament elected from SMCs, and the average ratio of electors to elected MPs, all at about the same as that in the last General Election”, when it was formed in late January.
A total of 82 seats will be contested in GRCs in the coming General Election — an average of 4.56 MPs per GRC.
This continued a downward trend over the past election cycles. The 2020 contest saw 4.65 MPs per GRC, down from 4.75 MPs per GRC in 2015 and five MPs per GRC in 2011. The figure had peaked at 5.36 in 2001 and 2006.
The GRC system was established in 1988 to ensure that the minority races will be represented in parliament.
GRCs can have three to six MPs and at least one of them must be from a minority race. Moreover, the number of GRCs with a Malay MP cannot be more than three-fifths the total number of GRCs.
UNEVEN VOTER GROWTH
The overall growth in voters across the island was not evenly distributed across the various wards, said the EBRC in its report.
“Due to population shifts and new housing developments, some EDs (electoral divisions) such as Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Sembawang GRC, Tampines GRC, Hong Kah North SMC and Potong Pasir SMC have experienced higher growth than others,” it said.
There were 2,753,226 voters on the electoral roll as of Feb 1 this year, an increase of 101,791 electors from 2,651,435 electors in the last contest, said the EBRC.
The starting point of its review was to look at wards which had grown significantly since the last election – Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Hong Kah North SMC, Sembawang GRC and Tampines GRC.
“Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC has seen the largest increase in the number of electors since the last GE, and will continue to grow with new housing developments,” it said.
There are currently 184,593 voters in the constituency, up from 166,556 who cast their ballots in the 2020 contest – an increase of 18,037, or 10.8 per cent
The Punggol estates in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC were hence carved out and merged with Punggol West SMC to form a new four-member Punggol GRC, the EBRC said. “This will also better reflect the identity of the estates in Punggol town.”
Hong Kah North SMC, which currently has 45,586 voters and breaches the upper limit for a single-seat ward, “has grown significantly and will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years, due to new housing developments in Tengah and Bukit Batok West”, according to the report.
“It has become too big to remain as an SMC,” said the EBRC, in explaining its rationale for absorbing the Tengah estates into Chua Chu Kang GRC.
A new Bukit Gombak SMC was then formed from the Bukit Gombak and Hillview estates in Chua Chu Kang GRC, in order to keep the ward as a four-member team while “accommodating significant future population growth in Tengah”.
Voter growth also saw the creation of Sembawang West SMC from Sembawang GRC, and Tampines Changkat SMC from Tampines GRC.
“The committee also recommended reducing the size of Ang Mo Kio GRC, which has the most electors of any ED, by carving out some polling districts to form a new Jalan Kayu SMC,” the EBRC said.
Ang Mo Kio GRC currently has 190,800 voters.
