GE2025: What surprises might Nomination Day bring?
PAP has announced most but not all of its slates, while WP has yet to show its hand
[SINGAPORE] The run-up to Nomination Day has seen a flurry of introductions by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and opposition parties – but not necessarily the exact candidates for each Group Representation Constituency (GRC) or Single-Member Constituency (SMC).
The PAP has introduced most of its slates, but with a few conspicuous exceptions. Meanwhile, the Workers’ Party (WP) has kept its cards close to its chest, introducing four batches of new faces but rarely saying where they will stand.
Here are some constituencies to watch on Wednesday (Apr 23), when the prospective candidates file their nomination papers at nine centres across the island.
Aljunied GRC
Aljunied GRC became the first GRC to be won by the opposition in GE2011, with the WP unseating three PAP heavyweights in one fell swoop.
It has come to be seen as a WP stronghold, with the PAP unable to retake it since – despite coming close in GE2015 when a recount of the votes was needed. But things might change if party leaders leave to strike out elsewhere, just as then-party chief Low Thia Khiang did to achieve the GE2011 breakthrough.
On Wednesday, prospective candidates for Aljunied GRC will file their papers at Poi Ching School, alongside those for Hougang SMC, Tampines GRC and Tampines Changkat SMC.
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If party chief Pritam Singh or chair Sylvia Lim are contesting elsewhere, they might show up at Yusof Ishak Secondary School instead. The WP is expected to contest three of the four GRCs at that nomination centre: East Coast, Punggol and Sengkang.
One WP new face for Aljunied GRC, at least, has been confirmed: tech startup director Kenneth Tiong. He has been active in the Serangoon division, vacated by WP incumbent Leon Perera in 2023 after his affair with fellow party member Nicole Seah was revealed.
East Coast GRC
The PAP has introduced its teams for all but three GRCs. One of these is East Coast, where the PAP had its second-lowest winning vote share in GE2020.
Since the GRC was first contested in 2006, the PAP’s vote share has been declining, apart from a jump in GE2015.
On Nomination Day in GE2020, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat turned up at the eleventh hour to fend off a WP team led by Nicole Seah. The PAP team eventually took 53.39 per cent of the votes.
This year, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong has joined the East Coast GRC team, but it remains to be seen if DPM Heng will stay on to anchor the team.
This GRC remains one to watch on Polling Day – and possibly beyond. In the event of a close fight, the overseas votes might even come into play. East Coast’s 1,484 registered overseas voters form nearly 1 per cent of the GRC’s total of 151,073 electors.
Jalan Kayu SMC
This single seat is newly carved out of PAP stronghold Ang Mo Kio GRC, where a team led by then-prime minister Lee Hsien Loong took 71.91 per cent of the vote against the Reform Party in GE2020.
In GE2025, however, the competition may look quite different. Labour chief and former minister Ng Chee Meng is set to go up against a WP candidate, after Red Dot United announced just before Nomination Day that it was backing out to avoid a three-cornered fight.
Ng became a minister soon after entering politics in GE2015, elected as part of the PAP’s Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC team. But in GE2020, the Sengkang GRC team that he led suffered a shock defeat, with the WP clinching its second GRC.
This election, the PAP will likely be keen to get Ng back into the government. With GE2025 promising a rematch against the WP, the big question is who exactly Ng will face. It is not unthinkable that the opposition may field a heavyweight such as Singh or Lim.
Prospective candidates for Jalan Kayu SMC will turn up at Deyi Secondary School, along with those for Ang Mo Kio GRC, Yio Chu Kang SMC and Kebun Baru SMC. With the WP not having indicated plans to contest those other constituencies, their candidate should be relatively easy to spot.
Punggol GRC
In the latest electoral boundaries, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC was split into Pasir Ris-Changi GRC – which absorbed some estates from East Coast GRC – and Punggol GRC.
The PAP announced its slate for Pasir Ris-Changi GRC on Monday, with Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean being replaced as anchor minister by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah.
SM Teo declined to confirm if he would contest elsewhere. If he does, one possibility is Punggol GRC, another of the three GRCs for which the PAP has yet to confirm its slate.
In the five GEs since its existence, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC was not contested by the WP. After a walkover in GE2001, the Singapore Democratic Alliance has run there since GE2006.
But pundits expect the WP might stand in Punggol GRC this year – particularly as the GRC has absorbed the former Punggol West SMC, where the WP fielded a candidate in GE2020.
Indranee departs Tanjong Pagar GRC after spending the last 24 years there. Tanjong Pagar is the final constituency where the PAP’s slate has not yet been announced. Education Minister Chan Chun Sing might become the sole anchor minister of that PAP stronghold.
West Coast-Jurong West GRC
Both the PAP and the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) have announced their slates for this newly formed GRC, in a partial reprise of the PAP’s hardest-won victory in GE2020. But last-minute changes to the line-ups are not improbable.
In GE2020, the PAP took 51.68 per cent of the votes in West Coast GRC, against a PSP team led by party founder Tan Cheng Bock.
West Coast GRC has now been combined with parts of Jurong GRC – including President Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s former ward – to form West Coast-Jurong West GRC.
The PSP is fielding its A-team again, with Dr Tan returning alongside Non-Constituency Members of Parliament Hazel Poa and Leong Mun Wai.
After former West Coast GRC anchor minister S Iswaran’s resignation last year due to corruption charges, National Development Minister Desmond Lee now leads the PAP team, comprising two other incumbents and two new faces.
While the team was officially announced on Apr 15, it remains possible that the PAP will choose to bolster this slate on Nomination Day.
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