GE2025: Tampines GRC to see first four-cornered fight since 1992
It is also the first four-way fight in a general election
[SINGAPORE] Tampines GRC will be the stage for the only four-cornered contest in the 2025 general election, with three opposition parties challenging the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). This will be the first four-way fight in a Group Representation Constituency since the 1992 by-election, and the first ever in a general election.
This was after the Workers’ Party (WP) and the People’s Power Party (PPP) threw their hats into the ring, joining the contest expected between the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and PAP in the five-member GRC.
The last time a four-cornered fight took place in a GRC was in 1992, during the Marine Parade by-election where PAP faced the Singapore Democratic Party, NSP and the Singapore Justice Party, which is now a component party of the Singapore Democratic Alliance. PAP won with 72.9 per cent of the votes.
The GE2025 PAP team is led by Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli and comprises former army chief David Neo, Nanyang Technological University Assistant Professor Charlene Chen, Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon, and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng.
Both Neo and Chen are contesting as newcomers, while the rest of the team are incumbents for the GRC.
WP, after walking the ground in Tampines for two years, fielded four new faces – Ong Lue Ping, Jimmy Tan, Eileen Chong, and Michael Thng – in a team led by Faisal Manap, who moved from the party’s Aljunied GRC team.
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NSP president Reno Fong and vice-president Mohd Ridzwan Mohammad, who were part of the party’s slate for the same constituency in 2020, will contest Tampines GRC together with party assistant secretary-general Eugene Yeo, and two new candidates: Zee Phay and Thamilselvan Karuppaya. Fong will lead the team.
The GRC saw a two-way contest between NSP and PAP in GE2020, in which PAP won with a 66.4 per cent vote share. Since it was formed in 1988, Tampines GRC has been contested at every general election except in 1997, when there was a walkover.
Joining the fight at Tampines is PPP’s team led by party secretary-general Goh Meng Seng. The team includes party chairman Derrick Sim, Vere Nathan, Arbaah Haroun, and Peter Soh.
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Tampines GRC has 148,119 registered voters and is the fifth-largest constituency in the upcoming election. The GRC now includes areas in Tampines West – east of Bedok Reservoir – absorbed from Aljunied GRC, and excludes parts of the former Tampines GRC that were carved out to create Tampines Changkat SMC.
PAP’s Desmond Choo, who was fielded in Tampines GRC in GE2020, will contest the new single-seat ward that also takes in a part of the previous East Coast GRC. The Single-Member Constituency has a total of 23,847 voters.
WP’s Kenneth Foo will contest Choo for the single seat.
The Tampines area houses more than 280,000 people, or about 5 per cent of Singapore’s population. Of these, more than 170,000 are registered electors.
Almost one in four residents in Tampines is Malay, making it the GRC with the highest proportion of Malay voters.
WP surprised voters on Nomination Day with a no-show at Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, where the opposition party had been widely expected to field a team.
Addressing the party’s decision to contest Tampines GRC with a relatively new team instead, WP secretary-general Pritam Singh called for understanding from Marine Parade’s voters, in light of electoral boundaries being redrawn and Tampines being a constituency in which WP aimed to contest.
“We wanted very (much) to actually field a team in Tampines in GE2020, but the same consideration that has come to the fore now was prevalent then, which is if we have enough good candidates to put a slate there,” said Singh.
As for why Faisal had been moved from Aljunied GRC to anchor the Tampines team, Singh said that he had “always wanted to stand in Tampines”.
“He’s been asking me to consider that proposal from him for quite a long time already, so he succeeded... and he is proud to lead the WP Tampines team.”
The party political broadcasts will be on Apr 25 and May 1, before Polling Day on May 3.
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