GE2020: PAP keeps Jurong GRC with 74.62% win

THE People's Action Party (PAP) fended off Red Dot United (RDU) in Jurong group representation constituency (GRC) to sweep 74.62 per cent of the vote in the 2020 General Elections (GE).

Led by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 63, the PAP team took 91,692 of the votes against RDU's 31,191. Rejected votes came to 2,517.

There were 125,400 votes cast by electors in this GRC.

Other members of the team included incumbents Tan Wu Meng, 45, the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Industry and Foreign Affairs, and Rahayu Mahzam, 39, an associate director at law firm Heng, Leong & Srinivasan. They are joined by new names Shawn Huang, 37, a director for enterprise development at Temasek International, and Xie Yao Quan, 35, head of healthcare redesign at Alexandra Hospital.

The PAP team was up against Singapore's newest political party RDU, which secured 25.38 per cent of the vote. RDU's team included Michelle Lee, 43, and Ravi Philemon, 52, who are former members of the Progress Singapore Party. The other candidates are political newcomers: theatre director Alec Tok Kim Yam, 55, entrepreneur and author Liyana Dhamirah, 33, and legal engineer Nicholas Tang, 28.

At the 2015 polls, Jurong GRC was the best-performing ward for the PAP. The team secured 79.3 per cent of the votes against the now-dissolved Singaporeans First.

The party was met with some controversy this year when a likely PAP candidate for Jurong GRC Ivan Lim, a general manager for specialised vessels at Keppel Offshore & Marine, became the target of online criticism over his past behaviour. 

He soon withdrew his candidacy, and was replaced by Mr Xie a day before Nomination Day. Mr Tharman saying that the party will investigate the allegations against Mr Lim after the elections. Mdm Rahayu told reporters on Nomination Day that Mr Xie was "really an easy choice" for the team.

Speaking to the media after the annoucement of the GE2020 results, Mr Tharman thanked RDU for the contest and said that they fought a good fight. He added that his team is pledging to work even harder, particularly in these difficult times, to help every family with its needs and to build up Jurong as a strong community.

Mr Tharman acknowledged the two new candidates for their teamwork, and Mr Lim, who was present with the Jurong GRC team at the interview, for his hard work on the ground in the initial stages.

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