PM: Lower hurdle for opposition parties
Smaller GRCs and more single-seat wards offer more scope for contest
By Elgin Toh and Li Xueying
POLITICAL parties planning to contest the next election have to clear a lower hurdle than at previous polls, the Prime Minister declared on Friday in his first comments on the new electoral map.
He pointed to key changes in the way electoral boundaries are demarcated this time round, in line with guidelines he announced in Parliament in May 2009.
As a result, the average number of MPs per group representation constituency (GRC) has come down from 5.4 to five. The number of six-member GRCs has been whittled down from five to two, while that of single-member constituencies (SMCs) goes up from nine to 12.
'This should lower the hurdle for parties intending to contest the elections,' Mr Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday in comments to the media.
The boundary changes unveiled on Thursday also affect many incumbent MPs, he said. In other words, the changes hit People's Action Party MPs too.
The new boundaries leave the two opposition-held SMCs of Hougang and Potong Pasir intact, but sweeping changes have hit most of the other nine SMCs. Five have been absorbed into GRCs, while eight new ones have been created.Are we for real? I'd reckon a better man will be silent and take the quiet victory rather than 'whitewash' it and try to look magnanimous. Sheesh... I have never known a political party in power to 'make way' for the opposition. You must have been the first.
Do you think we are daft? But I daresay, your daddy might be right. There will always be daft people who will believe anything.
I wonder aloud after so many hours/days/months spent in dialogged discussions, detailed planning and risk takings, to the final adjustment of the electoral boundaries by the elusive, invisible and the 'I-know-whom-but-you-don't' members of the Electoral Commission...
...the purpose of the redrawing is really to benefit the opposition, or in your own words "to lower the hurdles for contesting parties". Really? *eyebrows raised*
Truth be told - there is nothing much to lower. It took a rock bottom hit when opposition parties' hands are tied and their mouths silenced with defamation. Throw in GRC and gerrymandering and nothing else matters.
From the same mouth who said "the redrawing is to help the opposition parties" bespoke "GST is to help the poor".
Can I believe you? I bet the yes-men will believe anything. They might even agree that 'air coming out from your posterior end' smells like perfume too.
I seriously want to believe you. But my toes are laughing so hard. I think I cracked a toenail.
2 comments:
This same person said that if more opposition members enter parliament he would b busy fixing them and buying voters support. And now for some inexplicable reason he is lowering the hurdle for them? Please lah, I not stupid.
Those PAP crooks really think lesser mortals are stupid and retarded. They are merely shameful robbers, lead by a con-mastermind who made every attempt to instate himself as father of singapore, and who together rob the poor and rich alike, and then tell the world how generous they are in giving fraction of it back.
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