Singapore ruling party PAP wins general election
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Breakthrough for opposition
The opposition parties contested for 82 of the 87 seats in the general election, making it the most contested general election in Singapore in decades.
In one of the closely watched battle, the opposition Workers' Party won the five-seat Aljunied group representation constituency, defeating a team of five candidates led by Minister of Foreign Affairs George Yeo. It is also the first time for an opposition party to win a group representation constituency since it was introduced in 1988.
Candidates in a group representation constituency compete in teams of four to six. To ensure minority representation, one of the team members must be from a minority community, like the Indian or Malay community or others.
The Workers' Party won 54.71 percent of the votes in Aljunied, surpassing the 45.29 percent for the PAP team of candidates.
Yeo congratulated the Workers' Party, saying that the win marked a new chapter.
"It was a great campaign. We fought hard but we had no regrets. And we respect the decision of the people of Aljunied," he said. " A new chapter has spoken in Singapore's history."
The Workers' Party also defended its stronghold of Hougang, with its new candidate Yaw Shin Leong taking 64.81 percent of the votes.
PAP with an eye to future
The PAP candidates defeated in Aljunied included three office holders: Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua and Senior Minister of State Zainul Abidin Rasheed.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged voters to support the ruling party, saying that the 24 new candidates it fielded in the election include potential office holders that will make the backbone of the next generation leadership that will take over from him around 2020.
Eugene Tan, a scholar at the Singapore Management University, said that there were still the silent majority in the general election but the PAP has also made commitments to better communicate with the voters.
"The PAP also made the commitment to listen more, listen better, speak with rather than speak to Singaporeans," Tan said in live broadcast by local Channel NewsAsia.
With the new media playing an obviously larger role, the rising cost of living, housing affordability for the youths, immigration policies and employment were among the hot button issues in the general election.
The ruling People's Action Party took 82 of the 84 seats in the last general election in 2006 with 66.6 percent of the popular votes.
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