Singapore Opposition Wins By-Election to Retain Parliament Seat
A member of a Singapore opposition
party won a by-election yesterday that tested Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s ability to draw back support after the ruling
party’s poorest performance at polls last year.
Png Eng Huat, a 50-year-old businessman from the Workers’
Party, won 62.1 percent of valid votes for the seat in the
northeastern Hougang district that the group has held since
1991. It was left vacant after Yaw Shin Leong, who won 64.8
percent of votes in 2011, was expelled by the party in February
for what it called “indiscretions in his private life.”
The People’s Action Party was returned to power in May last
year with the smallest margin of victory since independence in
1965 and record opposition gains, prompting Lee to pledge his
party will change the way it governs. While candidates have
campaigned on local issues such as improving public housing, a
survey of 50 residents by Today newspaper this month showed a
majority of residents were looking at national policies,
including the cost of living and the influx of foreigners.
“Since the general election in May 2011, the PAP
government has done its best to address important national
issues like housing and transportation, immigration and
population, economic upgrading and workers’ incomes,” Lee said
in a statement after yesterday’s vote. “We have made progress,
but there is much more to be done.”
Report Card
About 23,000 people, or 1 percent of the electorate, were
eligible to vote in the district. Png got 13,447 out of 21,951
ballots cast, of which 294 were considered spoiled votes,
Returning Officer Yam Ah Mee said in a national broadcast.
“It is a very good result given the circumstances,”
Workers’ Party Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang said late
yesterday at a press conference that was broadcast nationally.
“We value every vote,” he said, referring to the smaller
victory margin.
The People’s Action Party candidate, Desmond Choo, 34, a
trade union official and former police officer, received 8,210
votes, Yam said. Choo knew it was “an uphill battle,” Lee said
in the statement, because of the two-decade presence of the
Workers’ Party
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-26/singapore-opposition-wins-by-election-to-retain-parliament-seat
Short URL: http://thepresidency.us/?p=16467
Posted by RobertButler
on May 26 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
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