SINGAPORE: The shock results of the 2025 general election, which many expected would be a watershed one, have left some opposition parties feeling disappointed and others resolute on staying the course.
Red Dot United (RDU), which contested Nee Soon GRC, Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC, Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, and Jurong Central SMC, promised to stay engaged on the ground.
Party chief Ravi Philemon, who led an A-team contesting Nee Soon, told the press: “For Red Dot United, it is always about the people, and we will continue to stay engaged, all five of us. That is the promise that we give to the voters in Nee Soon GRC … and you will see us again in the next five years. That’s for certain.”
Mr Philemon added that the people have not rejected RDU, pointing to the tens of thousands who cast their vote for his team.
He said, “A lot of them have embraced us, I think a lot of them, through their votes, have said that they want Red Dot United to be a voice, to be a force to be reckoned with in the politics of Singapore, and that’s what we’ll try our best to do and to be.”
Singapore’s youngest political party, the Singapore United Party (SUP), added that it will stay engaged as well and work hard to walk the ground over the next five years, to spread awareness of the party’s policies and messaging.
Revealing that his party will go for a thank-you walk over the weekend, secretary-general Andy Zhu said, “This is the first SUP parliamentary election, and we definitely have a lot more to improve.”
A number of other opposition parties, however, have expressed a desire to possibly take a back seat.
Singapore People’s Party (SPP) chief told the press that while it is too early to say what their plans for the next five years and the next polls will be, his team would have to take many factors into consideration and decide whether to put in another bid, merge the party with other entities or deregister the party.
Mr Chia added that the results were surprising and he did not know what went wrong. Asserting that the outcome seems to represent an overall failure for the opposition, he said: “We need to go back and reflect on why the opposition’s performance is like that this time.”
“I really don’t know why there’s such a swing for the PAP – not just in Bishan-Toa Payoh but everywhere,” he said, as he added that he “cannot reconcile the difference” between the support on the ground and the low vote share at the ballot box.
He also expressed hope that the outcome would dissuade opposition parties from going into multi-cornered fights in the future.
One party that entered into multi-cornered fights and is expected to lose its election deposit for every single candidate is the People’s Power Party (PPP). PPP fielded a total of 10 candidates in the election, putting up a hefty $135,000 as election deposits in total.
To regain an election deposit, a party needs to earn at least 12.5 per cent of the vote. At Ang Mo Kio GRC, the PPP team gained about 10 per cent of the vote while it registered a meager 1 per cent of the vote at a four-cornered fight at Tampines GRC, as per the sample count.
Mr Goh told the press, “In general, my party has lost in both places and unfortunately, quite badly.”
While he said that his party will “never give up,” his own involvement in politics moving forward remains less certain. He said, “Personally, I’m very tired about this, so I may have to take a back seat to reconsider how to move forward.”
He added, “But … be assured, my party will continue its path of growing. We are determined to do that.”
Mr Goh added that he would take responsibility for the hefty losses he had incurred during the campaign. He said, “This is the second property that I have sold to finance an election like that, right? I will take responsibility for the losses, most of the losses, but I’m very glad that there are people who actually have to chip in for the expenses, but for the deposit, most of it, I will bear the cost.”