SDP: The electoral system is not for the PAP to tweak and adjust

Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has come out strongly against the proposed changes to our electoral system outlined by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his speech today. The opposition political party said that the electoral system is not for the PAP to tweak and adjust.
“The proposals by PM Lee serve only to distract the people from the real problems that plague elections in Singapore,”the party headed by Dr Chee Soon Juan said in a press release.
Pointing out that a democratic election system requires a free media, freedom of speech and assembly, and a transparent electoral process, SDP said that if the PAP is genuinely interested in reforming the political system, the following measures are necessary:
1. Amend the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act and the Broadcasting Act. The control of the media by the PAP is what has kept it in power all these decades.
2. Abolish the GRC system. The GRC system has enabled the PAP to draw constituency boundaries to its advantage.
3. Repeal the Public Order Act. The police stop the opposition from speaking and meeting freely with the people while PAP MPs have free access to the electorate.
4. Lengthen the campaign period. The election period should be lengthened to at least 3 weeks. The short campaign period makes it unnecessarily difficult for the opposition to mount a meaningful campaign.
5. Remove the Elections Department from the control of the PMO. A genuinely free and fair elections can come about only if there is an independent body to conduct and monitor elections.