SINGAPORE: The opposition Workers’ Party (WP) noted “significant” changes to areas where it has been “working consistently for the last few years”, in revisions to Singapore’s electoral boundaries released on Tuesday (Mar 11).
Meanwhile, the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) questioned what it called “drastic” tweaks to the boundaries ahead of a coming General Election, which left just nine constituencies untouched from the last polls.
The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) also said it was “disappointed” with the disappearance of two Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) – Yuhua and Bukit Batok – where it had previously contested.
Other smaller opposition parties too voiced discontent at some of the changes, even as they expressed readiness to adapt to a redrawn electoral map.
Voters must head to the polls by November to elect 97 Members of Parliament (MPs) across 33 constituencies, up from 93 MPs and 31 constituencies previously.
This was after the Singapore government accepted recommendations released by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) on Tuesday.
In response, WP said the confirmation of the electoral boundaries was a critical part of election preparations.
“The report contains some brief justifications for the redrawing of boundaries, such as the population growth of certain electoral districts,” the party said in a Facebook post.
WP added that it will share more information in due course on the likely constituencies it will contest and its potential candidates.
PSP said it was “heartened” that the EBRC disclosed more of the reasoning behind the recommendations in its report this time.
“However, PSP’s view is that much of the EBRC’s decision-making remains unexplained, and the EBRC could have accounted for population shifts without making drastic changes to existing major electoral boundaries,” the party said in a statement.
“For instance, the population changes to Hong Kah North SMC because of the new Tengah estate could have been dealt with by merging it with Yuhua SMC and Bukit Batok SMC to form a new GRC.
“Instead, this was used to justify changing the electoral boundaries of Jurong GRC, West Coast GRC, Chua Chu Kang GRC, Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC.”
In an interview with CNA, PSP Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa also pointed to Telok Blangah ward in West Coast GRC, which saw the tightest race in the 2020 polls, with the PAP edging out PSP.
Noting that the ward was moved to Tanjong Pagar GRC, she said this “made Tanjong Pagar GRC too big, so that they have to carve out an SMC”, in reference to the new Queenstown SMC.
Ms Poa said this “doesn’t make sense, because you could have made Telok Blangah an SMC to begin with, and then leave Tanjong Pagar alone”.
“So we do feel that there are certain changes that are not fully explained,” she added.
PSP said it would study the EBRC report and make further announcements about where it would contest the election.
Ms Poa said the party would “take into account how familiar with we are with that location and whether we have been walking the grounds there sufficiently” in deciding where to run.
In a statement to CNA, SDP said the whole process of redrawing electoral boundaries “lacks transparency, done without open discussion among stakeholders”.
The party added that it will have to study the details of all the changes carefully and consolidate its plans.
