SINGAPORE: Online chatter about the coming election has begun to heat up after it was announced on Tuesday (March 11) that the Government had accepted the recommendations of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC).
Big changes will mark the upcoming general election, which must be held no later than Nov 23 this year. Twenty-two of the current constituencies will see changes, and only nine remain unchanged.
There will be more MPs and constituencies, with six new Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) and five new Single Member Constituencies (SMCs). Furthermore, five of the current SMCs will be made part of GRCs.
Over on Reddit, when a user on the platform asked, “How does everyone feel about the latest changes and how will it impact the next GE?” many were eager to provide answers.
“Well, it’s the first election I’m gonna be voting in, and it’s gonna be interesting,” wrote one, while another said that they live in a neighbourhood that’s been carved out into a smaller SMC for the first time and the polls “will be interesting”.
On the flip side was the Reddit user who said that their neighborhood had been “thrown here, throw there” during the past few elections. However, “Only this time [it] is spared lah.”
An obvious opposition supporter chimed in to say that they were “just happy Sengkang and Aljunied”, both held by The Workers’ Party, are “mostly untouched”.
However, three polling districts have been moved from Aljunied GRC to Tampines GRC. It’s the first time that Aljunied’s boundaries have been redrawn since 2011. Sengkang GRC’s electoral boundaries, on the contrary, are still the same.
“WP really serves the residents very well,” said a netizen.
One Reddit user pointed out how disappointed Singapore Democratic Party Secretary-General Chee Soon Juan must be. He has been working the ground at Bukit Batok for many years. However, following the latest electoral division changes, Bukit Batok is no longer an SMC but will be part of Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC.
For one commenter, however, the changes “made sense,” although they added that they’ve still not decided who they’ll vote for in the coming election.
Another agreed, writing, “I feel like the elections department tried their best to deal with the increase in voter populations. The boundaries in Ponggol feel sensible. Plus very limited changes to the current WP areas too, so there will be clean fights there.”
Nevertheless, they did note that the redrawn Marine Parade GRC was “like the poster child for weird GRC boundaries”.
Another had strong feelings about the current crop of MPs. “Why don’t MPs stay in the wards they represent?
“I’d vote for you if you can endure a 1.5-hour commute to work and from work every day. I’d vote for you if you eat the same stuff that I eat from the same coffee shops and copy-paste restaurants in the shopping centre. I’d vote for you if you have to dodge PMDs and PMAs once you step outside.” /TISG
Read also: Road to GE2025: Big changes in ERBC report