GE2020: PAP wins Nee Soon GRC with 61.9% of votes

THE People's Action Party (PAP) has retained Nee Soon GRC with 61.9 per cent of the vote, in this year's match against the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party (PSP).

The PAP team, helmed by Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam, secured 86,219 votes, while the PSP secured 53,070 votes. The number of spoiled votes was 2,199.

The voter turnout for Nee Soon GRC, which has 147,047 voters, was 96.2 per cent.

The PAP's team comprises Mr Shanmugam, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development Faishal Ibrahim, backbencher Louis Ng, as well as first-time candidates Derrick Goh and Carrie Tan.

Mr Goh, 51, is the managing director and head of group audit at DBS Bank. The 38-year-old Ms Tan is the founding executive director of Daughters of Tomorrow, a charity that supports underprivileged women.

The PSP candidates are adult educator Kala Manickam, 52; IT project manager Taufik Supan, 40; media consultant Bradley Bowyer, 53; customer service manager Damien Tay, 51; and party treasurer and investment specialist Sri Nallakaruppan, 56.

During the election hustings, Mr Shanmugam said that his opponents seemed to be "half-hearted" about contesting the GRC, adding that the PSP had been willing to trade the constituency.

Mr Bowyer of the PSP refuted that the PSP had been willing to give up Nee Soon GRC, and said that his team had been preparing to contest the constituency since the release of the electoral boundary report.

Nee Soon GRC was formed in 2011 and has remained a PAP stronghold. This election, the Kebun Baru SMC was carved out of the Nee Soon GRC, while some parts of Sembawang GRC were added.

The PAP beat the Workers' Party in Nee Soon at the 2015 polls, winning 66.83 per cent of the vote. The PAP team then had comprised Mr Shanmugam, Dr Faishal and Mr Ng, as well as Henry Kwek and Lee Bee Wah. This election, Mr Kwek contested Kebun Baru SMC while Ms Lee announced her retirement from politics.

The WP team defeated in 2015 had comprised Kenneth Foo, Cheryl Loh, Gurmit Singh, Luke Koh and Ron Tan.

For more of our Singapore GE2020 coverage, go to bt.sg/ge2020.

BT is now on Telegram!

For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes