GE2025: PAP fends off RDU challenges in Holland-Bukit Timah and Nee Soon GRCs
Shanmugam-led team in Nee Soon GRC garners 73.81% of votes against slate led by RDU chief Ravi Philemon; PAP retains Holland-Bukit Timah GRC with 79.29% vote share
[SINGAPORE] The People’s Action Party (PAP) has retained Nee Soon GRC, defeating a team led by Red Dot United (RDU) chief Ravi Philemon in the 2025 general election.
The incumbent PAP, led by Minister for Law K Shanmugam and sporting a largely refreshed slate, won 73.81 per cent of the votes after polls closed on Saturday (May 3), compared with the 26.19 per cent share garnered by RDU.
A total of 139,203 valid votes were cast, of which 102,744 went to the PAP. There were 3,083 rejected votes. The Group Representation Constituency (GRC) has 151,874 electors.
Shanmugam, who is also the minister for home affairs, has been a Member of Parliament for Nee Soon GRC since the constituency’s creation in 2011.
In GE2025, PAP fielded him along with four new faces, after former MPs Louis Ng, Carrie Tan and Derrick Goh announced that they would be stepping down from politics.
The newcomers are ex-civil servant Goh Hanyan, Temasek Foundation communications director Lee Hui Ying, former PAP Hougang branch chair Jackson Lam, and consultant psychiatrist Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi.
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Dr Syed Harun was also a Nominated MP but resigned in February before his term ended. Shanmugam later said that the Republic’s Constitution allows for a Nominated MP to step down, join a political party and run for election.
Meanwhile, GE2025 was the first time RDU contested in Nee Soon GRC. Philemon’s team included chemist and party chair David Foo; Sharon Lin, a senior consultant in the IT services sector; tech startup business director Pang Heng Chuan; and private school teacher Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad.
This is Philemon’s highest vote share in a general election. In GE2020, his RDU team contested Jurong GRC and received 25.39 per cent of the votes against a PAP team led by then-senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
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During the hustings in GE2025, Philemon had questioned the PAP’s decision to field four newcomers alongside Shanmugam, raising doubts about their readiness to succeed him when the time comes.
In response, Shanmugam and former Nee Soon MP Lee Bee Wah said that some of the new faces had ties to the constituency, and the four had a track record in community service.
In particular, Lee Bee Wah had mentored newcomer Lee Hui Ying for 15 years, and pledged to continue guiding the new MP post-election.
Incumbents keep Holland-Bukit Timah GRC
PAP also kept Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, defeating a team from RDU.
The ruling party received a vote share of 79.29 per cent, while RDU garnered 20.71 per cent of the votes.
In the latest election, a total of 108,945 valid votes were cast in the GRC, of which 86,384 went to the PAP. There were 2,687 rejected votes. The GRC has 123,225 electors.
The PAP team, led by Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan, is unchanged from GE2020, with Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and National Development Sim Ann, lawyer Christopher de Souza, and businessman Edward Chia.
The four-man RDU team featured new faces assistant engineer Sharad Kumar, operations manager Nizar Subair and music teacher Emily Woo, as well as financial consultant Fazli Talip, who contested in GE2011 under the Workers’ Party.
RDU was contesting the GRC for the first time.
In 2020, the PAP won Holland-Bukit Timah GRC with 66.36 per cent of the votes against the opposition Singapore Democratic Party.
RDU fielded the second-largest opposition party slate in GE2025, with 15 candidates across three GRCs and one Single-Member Constituency. In its GE2020 debut, it contested only Jurong GRC and lost.
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