Bukit Batok by-election: PAP's Murali to square off against SDP's Chee on May 7

IT'S official. There are only two contenders for the by-election in Bukit Batok, after both the People's Action Party's (PAP) Murali Pillai and the Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) Chee Soon Juan made it through the Nomination Day proceedings on Wednesday without fuss.

About 30 minutes after nominations closed at noon, the Returning Officer, Energy Market Authority chief executive Ng Wai Choong, officially declared that a poll of Bukit Batok's 25,727 eligible voters would be taken on Saturday, May 7.

There was some uncertainty during the hour-long nomination process whether it would be a multi-cornered fight. This after two other men - former Bukit Batok candidate Kwan Yue Keng and private-hire car driver Shirwin Eu - turned up at the school hall of Keming Primary School, the nomination centre.

Mr Eu, 32, was ineligible to contest as he did not have any proposers, seconders or assentors with him. Mr Kwan, who contested the 1988 and 1991 general elections in Bukit Batok under the SDP ticket, told the media he was ready to stand in case Dr Chee was disqualified, as he did not want to see the PAP win via a walkover. The 68-year-old, however, did not file his nomination papers in the end.

Campaigning for the by-election will run for nine days until May 5. The mandatory cooling-off day is on May 6, and voters will head to one of nine polling stations to cast their ballots on May 7.