GE2025: PAP retains Jalan Besar GRC with near 10-point swing
PAP’s Yip Hon Weng also secured a second term in Yio Chu Kang SMC with an almost 18-point swing
[SINGAPORE] Residents of Jalan Besar GRC remain under the stewardship of the People’s Action Party (PAP) slate helmed by Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo – with the ruling party clinching a near 10-point swing in the constituency.
The four-member PAP team secured 75.21 per cent of the vote in the constituency, up from a vote share of 65.36 per cent in the 2020 General Election (GE) and 67.75 per cent in GE2015.
The incumbent team includes Denise Phua, who has served as Mayor of Central Singapore District since 2014; Dr Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah; as well as political greenhorn and former finance ministry director Shawn Loh, who replaced Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How.
Loh is currently the deputy group managing director of Singapore-based investment company Commonwealth Capital Group.
PAP went head-to-head with opposition coalition People’s Alliance for Reform (PAR) that fielded a team comprising newcomers freelance private tutor Chiu Shin Kong; party treasurer Mohamad Hamim Aliyas; nurse Sarina Abu Hassan; and early childhood educator Vigneswari V Ramachandran.
The PAP slate secured 70,345 votes while the PAR team gathered 23,186 votes. A total of 3,331 ballot slips were rejected.
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Created in 1959, Jalan Besar GRC first became a three-member Group Representation Constituency in 1988, from a single-seat ward.
In GE2001, it expanded to become a five-member GRC.
It was then dissolved in 2011 with the formation of the now-defunct Moulmein-Kallang GRC, which was won by the PAP with a vote share just shy of 60 per cent.
Jalan Besar GRC made a comeback in GE2015.
It comprised 106,342 registered electors this time, compared with 107,720 in GE2020.
Yio Chu Kang victory
PAR – an alliance of three parties that contested 13 seats in two GRCs and four SMCs this general election – also lost to the PAP in Yio Chu Kang SMC.
Incumbent PAP candidate Yip Hon Weng defended his seat with a double-digit vote margin of 17.91 per cent in this general election.
Yip, a director at Temasek, defeated PAR’s Dr Michael Fang with 78.73 per cent of the vote, up from 60.82 per cent in GE2020.
Yip raked in 17,992 votes against Dr Fang’s 4,860, while 557 ballot papers were rejected.
In GE2020, the then political newbie received 14,775 votes, defeating fellow newcomer Kayla Low of the Progress Singapore Party, who pulled in 9,519 ballots. There were 413 rejected votes then.
Dr Fang, is a health sciences lecturer at a private college. He also contested in GE2020 but in Jalan Besar GRC, where his Peoples Voice team lost with 34.64 per cent of the votes.
In, out and around
The Yio Chu Kang ward has faced repeated boundary changes over the years.
In 1991, it became part of the Ang Mo Kio GRC. In GE2006, it was carved out into a single seat. In GE2011, it was reabsorbed into the PAP stronghold helmed by then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In GE2020, it was drawn into a single seat again, and this remained unchanged in GE2025 except for one polling district that was shifted to Kebun Baru SMC.
Yio Chu Kang SMC has 25,410 registered electors this time, compared with 25,962 in GE2020.
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