The six-hour-long election result marathon ends today with the People’s Action Party winning and forming Singapore’s next government while losing one more constituency to the opposition.
More than 2.5 million Singaporeans went to the polls in the middle of a pandemic yesterday, leading to long queues snaking out of various polling stations across Singapore as safe measures were implemented. Vote counting began right after polling closed at 10pm, after the voting period was extended by two hours amid long queues.
The PAP scored 83 out of 93 seats in parliament while the rest go to the Workers’ Party, who earned majority votes in Hougang, Aljunied and new constituency Sengkang.
PAP, which has been ruling Singapore since the city-state’s independence, performed worse than previously in the 2015 elections, scoring 61.24% of total votes.
Ninety-three parliamentary seats were up for grabs across 31 electoral divisions. Eleven political parties had run for office, including the ruling People’s Action Party.
GE2020: Nearly 200 candidates register to run in Singapore’s election
The races many eyed on include the Sengkang group constituency, where popular new Workers’ Party faces Jamus Lim and Raeesah Khan were running; the West Coast constituency, where former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock hoped to win; and of course, the East Coast constituency, where Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat led Team PAP in a showdown against the Workers’ Party.
Singaporeans also paid attention to the only two constituencies previously held by the opposition – Hougang and Aljunied – and see whether Workers’ Party support remains strong there.
GE2020: Election map takes shape as candidates register to run
The PAP won the previous election in 2015 with nearly 70% votes.
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