Battle for votes continues in Singapore ahead of general election

As polling day on May 6 is approaching, politicians from both the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) and the opposition parties in Singapore have been stepping up their campaigning activities on Sunday.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also secretary general of the PAP, visited two markets in Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency (GRC), which has not been contested since it was formed in 1991, according to Channel NewsAsia reports on Sunday night.

The premier also addressed a PAP rally at the Woodlands Stadium in northern Singapore, calling on Singaporeans to choose his team that will continue to help grow the city state's economy and generate resources to help the needy.

In East Coast GRC, the PAP team led by Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar accused the Workers' Party of having done nothing but trying to hijack what the PAP parliamentarians have done in East Coast and elsewhere.

At another walkabout with PAP team mates in Aljunied GRC, Foreign Minister George Yeo criticized Workers' Party Chairman Sylvia Lim for what Lim said about his negotiations of free trade agreements with foreign countries.

In Jalan Besar GRC, the PAP team spoke out against the Singapore Democratic Alliance's (SDA) plan to help needy residents.

On Thursday, the PAP secured 37 of the 84 parliamentary seats in seven uncontested Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) on Nomination Day, while the opposition parties, including the Workers' Party (WP), the SDA and the Singapore Democratic Party ( SDP) have fielded 47 candidates in all the nine Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) and the other seven of the 14 GRCs to challenge the PAP, which was formed in 1954 and has been in power since Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965.

However, it is for the first time since 1988 that the PAP did not win a majority of the total seats to declare victory in the general election on Nomination Day.

More than 1.22 million voters, including 553 overseas voters, are expected to cast their votes at 422 polling stations islandwide on May 6.

Singapore's last general election was held in November 2001, in which the PAP got 75 percent of the votes and won 82 out of the 84 parliamentary seats, while the WP and the SDA gained one seat each.

Source: Xinhua