SINGAPORE: In Singapore’s 2020 General Election (GE), while voters returned the People’s Action Party (PAP) candidates in 83 out of 93 seats in Parliament, it is the opposition Workers’ Party (WP) that stole the show.
Going into the election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, WP held out the spectre of a PAP “clean sweep” unless voters could beat the instinctive "flight to safety" of choosing a tried and tested team. Instead, WP reminded them of the reasons why “balance” in voices and power was needed in Parliament.
The surprise was that WP was able to extend its influence from six seats to 10 by wresting a second group representation constituency (GRC) – Sengkang – in addition to WP holding Aljunied GRC and the single seat of Hougang where it was the incumbent party.
The popular vote share for WP where it contested swung by 10.7 percentage points from its GE2015 result to reach a creditable 50.5 per cent in the seats it contested.