SINGAPORE: The ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) has won at Tampines GRC in a four-cornered fight that resulted in the opposition party being denied winning another GRC.
The PAP team at Tampines is comprised of Social and Family Development Minister Masagos Zulkifli, 62; Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Sustainability and the Environment Koh Poh Koon, 53; Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Sustainability and the Environment Baey Yam Keng, 54, and new candidates former chief of army David Neo, 47; and assistant professor of marketing at Nanyang Technological University Charlene Chen.
The ruling party’s team, headed by Mr Masagos, won with 52.02 per cent of the vote. This shows a decrease of over 14 per cent, as in GE2020, the PAP team had received 66.41 per cent of the vote against a team from the National Solidarity Party (NSP), which had gotten 33.59 per cent of the vote.
At Tampines Changkat SMC, meanwhile, the PAP’s Desmond Choo, 47, who has been overseeing Tampines Changkat in Parliament since 2015, bested WP candidate Kenneth Foo, winning 56.17 per cent of the vote to Mr Foo’s 43.83 per cent.
This year, the slate from the Workers’ Party at Tampines GRC received 47.37 per cent of the vote. There had been much excitement on Nomination Day on April 23, when the WP announced that its vice chair, Faisal Manap, 49, who served as Member of Parliament at Aljunied GRC for three terms since 2011, would leave Aljunied to lead the WP team at Tampines.
In a media interview on that day, WP chief Pritam Singh said, “My dear brother has always wanted to stand in Tampines. So he’s been asking me to consider that proposal from him for quite a long time already. He succeeded. Faisal Manap is in Tampines, and he is proud to lead the WP Tampines team.”
Joining Mr Manap were three new candidates for the WP: former diplomat Eileen Chong, 32; business owner Jimmy Tan, 53; and tech start-up founder Michael Thng, 37.
This year, the NSP received 0.18 per cent of the votes. Its team was made up of the party’s president, Reno Fong, 56; vice-president Mohd Ridzwan Mohammad, 63; assistant secretary-general Eugene Yeo, 49; as well as Zee Phay, 32; and Thamilselvan Karuppaya, 57.
As for the People’s Power Party (PPP), it received 0.43 per cent of the vote. Its team comprised PPP secretary-general Goh Meng Seng, 55, Derrick Sim, 44; Vere Nathan, 26; Peter Soh, 65; and Arbaah Haroun, 50.
With the results in, the NSP and PPP stand to lose their election deposits of $13,500. Under the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1954, the deposit for each candidate is the fixed monthly allowance payable to an elected MP for the month immediately before the date of dissolution of Parliament, rounded to the nearest $500. If a candidate is unable to win more than 12.5 per cent of the votes in their constituency, their election deposit is forfeited. /TISG
Read also: ‘The man of the day,’ Faisal Manap is touched by warm welcome at Tampines