7 important things that Singaporeans need to know from the GE2020 results

Similar to how 2020 has been thus far, GE2020 was an unpreceded event.

Despite the arrangement for voters to vote at the recommended time band, long queues were seen in some polling stations, leading to polling closing at 10pm, instead of the usual 8pm.

This led to a delay in the results being announced, with sample votes only coming in at around midnight and official results only being announced at 1am onwards. Results were only concluded at 4am.

In the end, the PAP won a total of 83 seats with the WP winning 10 seats.

With the results only being announced late at night, many of us may have already turned in for the night. Besides the actual results, here are 7 other important things that you should also know .

1. Sengkang GRC won by WP; PAP edge out PSP at West Coast GRC; PAP edge out WP at East Coast GRC

Sengkang GRC

The biggest upset of GE2020 was Sengkang GRC going to WP. Lead by Jamus Lim and He Ting Ru, WP won 52.13 per cent of the votes.

This also means that Ng Chee Meng, Lam Pin Min & Amrin Amin, who are all office holders, will no longer be in parliament. This would obviously be a dent for the PAP.

WP winning team for Sengkang: Jamus Lim, Raeesah Khan, Louis Chua, He Ting Ru

PAP losing team at Sengkang: Ng Chee Meng , Lam Pin Min , Amrin Amin , Raymond Lye

Do note that Ng Chee Meng remains as the Secretary-General of NTUC.

West Coast GRC

West Coast was a nail-biter. The PAP West Coast team led by S Iswaren and Desmond Lee manage to edge out the PSP, which was led by Tan Cheng Bock. They won 51.69 per cent of the votes.

East Coast GRC

East Coast GRC was also a close battle. The PAP team led by Heng Swee Keat won just 53.41 per cent of the vote against a WP team that included the very popular Nicole Seah.

It’s possible that had Heng Swee Keat not contested at East Coast, WP may have won another GRC.

2. Voters turn out increase in spite of Covid-19 fears

Given that the election was held during the Covid-19 pandemic, one fear was that voters’ turnout would be lower, as some voters may prefer to stay at home to avoid the crowd. However, this wasn’t the case.

According to the Elections Department, a total of 2,535,565 votes (including 45,772 rejected votes) were cast.

This made up 95.63 per cent of the registered electors. In contrast, in GE2015, only 93.56 per cent of eligible electors voted.

That said, it’s possible as well that because of Covid-19, more Singaporeans have returned back to Singapore, as opposed to being based overseas, and are thus able to vote easily for GE2020 as compared to previous elections.

3. More than 5,000 votes were rejected at Ang Mo Kio GRC

More than 5,000 votes at Ang Mo Kio were considered as spoilt votes, which makes up about 2.81 per cent of all votes in Ang Mo Kio.

This is a very high number, which is only lower than Jalan Besar (2.90 per cent) and Radin Mas (3.47 per cent).

In contrast, in Sengkang GRC, where the battle was much closer, only 1.02 per cent of votes were spoilt. Punggol West saw a spoilt vote count of only 0.84 per cent. Both seats were contested by the WP.

4. PAP won only 61.24 per cent of the popular vote

The popular vote is an indication of just how popular the various parties are, especially the PAP.

For GE2020, the PAP won the popular vote share with 61.24per cent. This is a decline as compared to GE2015, when they won 69.9 per cent of all votes.

The WP, which won 39.8 per cent of all votes in the ward that it contested in back in GE2015, increase its share of the vote to 50.18 per cent in GE2020, possibly an indication that the party is gaining grounds on the seats that it contests.

5. WP outperforms other Opposition parties by a large margin

On average, the opposition won 38.22 per cent of votes.

It’s easy to lump all the opposition parties today, but this should no longer be the case.

In the seats that it contested, WP actually scored an average of 50.18 per cent, winning three out of the six constituencies.

This is far higher than the 35.36 per cent that the rest of the other opposition parties garnered (excluding the WP).

If you go one step further and exclude the average votes that PSP got (39.93 per cent), the total average votes that the other opposition parties garnered (excluding WP and PSP) is only 33.58 per cent.

From a political standpoint, it looks like WP is on a class on its own among opposition parties with the PSP in second place.

6. Who are the likely NCMPs?

A Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) is a member of a Singaporean opposition political party who, according to the Constitution and the Parliamentary Elections Act, is declared to have been elected a Member of the Parliament of Singapore despite having lost in a general election by virtue of having been one of the best-performing losers.

Since the minimum number of opposition MPs is 12, and a total of 10 seats were won by the WP, this means a total of two NCMPs will be offered.

This will be offered to the top two losers. Candidates can choose not to accept the offer to be an NCMP.

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Based on voting results, these are the parties/people who will be offered the NCMPs position, in order of priority.

West Coast GRC: PSP (48.31 per cent); Tan Cheng Bock, Hazel Poa, N.Loganathan, Leong Mun Wai, Jeffrey Khoo. It’s worth noting that as a GRC, The West Coast GRC PSP team can nominate up to two candidates to be NCMPs.

Assuming they do not take up either one or two of the NCMPs position, WP East Coast GRC team with 46.59 per cent will be next in line to be offered the position. This means Nicole Seah, Terence Tan, Dylan Ng, Foo Seck Guan and Abdul Shariff may have a chance.

In the improbable event that both West Coast GRC and East Coast GRC do not fill up the two NCMP positions, Paul Tambyah from SDP, who won 46.26 per cent of Bukit Panjang SMC, will get a chance.

7. Two election deposits lost

As we wrote in a previous article, three-corner fights are a disadvantage to the opposition.

This holds true as all constituencies with three-corners fights saw at least one party losing their election deposits.

These are the candidates that lost their deposits in GE2020.

Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC – PV (12.18 per cent)

Pioneer SMC – Cheang Peng Wah (2.78 per cent)

This article was first published in Dollars and Sense.