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Cheng San Group Representation Constituency
Electoral division in Singapore From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Cheng San Group Representation Constituency (Simplified Chinese: 静山集选区;Traditional Chinese: 靜山集選區) was a defunct Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the North-eastern region in Singapore. The GRC consisted of the eastern part of Ang Mo Kio, Jalan Kayu, Seletar Hills, part of Serangoon North, a large part of Hougang, Buangkok, and the whole of Sengkang New Town and Punggol New Town.
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The last Members of Parliament (MPs) for the GRC were Lee Yock Suan, Heng Chiang Meng, Michael Lim Chun Leng, Zainul Abidin Bin Mohamed Rasheed and Yeo Guat Kwang from the People's Action Party (PAP).
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1988: Establishment
Cheng San GRC was established in 1988, following the establishment of GRC and Single Member Consituency (SMC), by merging the Cheng San, Chong Boon and Jalan Kayu Constituencies.[1] The GRC was initially helmed by three MPs.
During the 1991 general election, the GRC absorbed Punggol SMC and was increased to a four man GRC. The GRC was an opposition favourite during the election.
1997: Hotly contested election
During the 1997 general election, the GRC carved out parts of the Chong Boon division of the GRC, bounded by Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, Central Expressway and Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, which was absorbed by Ang Mo Kio GRC. The Punggol division were split into three divisions, Punggol Central, Punggol East and Punggol South, as a result of the growing population of Hougang and Sengkang. The changes led to the GRC becoming a five man GRC.
The GRC was hotly contested between the PAP and Workers' Party (WP). The incumbent PAP team led by the Minister for Education Lee Yock Suan, faced a contest by a WP team led by its Secretary-General Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam and Tang Liang Hong, a senior lawyer. Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong, PAP's Secretary-General, and his two deputies from the PAP actively campaigned for the PAP's candidates in the Cheng San GRC. Goh described himself as "a special candidate" of the constituency and declared that his credibility and reputation as Prime Minister were at stake in the contest. The PAP campaign took on a two-pronged focus. Firstly, the PAP accused Tang of being anti-Christian and a Chinese chauvinist, labelling him a "dangerous man". Secondly, the Prime Minister told Cheng San voters that if they returned PAP candidates to power in the election, they would get a host of benefits. These included access to better transport facilities such as the MRT and LRT, new housing projects, such as Punggol 21, and opportunities to upgrade their HDB apartments and public housing estates. The PAP emphasised that constituencies that failed to return PAP candidates to power would not receive priority in government upgrading programmes and might end up becoming slums.[citation needed]
The WP's rallies in Cheng San GRC attracted huge crowds. On the eve of Polling Day, 50,000 people attended the WP rally at Yio Chu Kang Stadium. However, news coverage of the turnout was under reported, causing much online criticism of The Straits Times in reporting objectively.[citation needed]
On Polling Day, several PAP ministers, including Goh Chok Tong, Tony Tan and Lee Hsien Loong were within the precinct of polling stations in Cheng San GRC, although they were not themselves candidates in the constituency. The WP believed that this violated the Parliamentary Elections Act, as unauthorised personnel are prohibited from polling stations by election law to prevent undue influence and harassment on voters and staff. The Workers' Party's candidates filed police reports,[2] citing the violation of two sections of the Parliamentary Elections Act:
- Section 82(1)(d): "No person shall wait outside any polling station on polling day, except for the purpose of gaining entry to the polling station to cast his vote".
- Section 82(1)(e): "No person shall loiter in any street or public place within a radius of 200 metres of any polling station on polling day."
Their complaints were not prosecuted by the police, on the advice of the Attorney-General Chan Sek Keong.[3] Chan, in his letter to the Minister of Law, interpreted the statute as being irrelevant to people within the polling station, and that remaining within the polling station itself, as opposed to being within a perimeter of 200 meters from the external walls of the polling station, was not an offence.[4] He added that "the possibility of a person inside a polling station influencing or intimidating voters in the presence of the presiding officer and his officials, the polling agents etc was considered so remote that it was discounted by the Act."[5]
The WP then questioned if the AG was suggesting that it was acceptable for people to enter and loiter on the grounds of the polling station instead of outside the station.[6] Later, WP renewed its call for a multi-party Election Commission to ensure fair play in the conduct of Parliamentary elections.
PAP won the contest with 54.82 percent of the valid votes.[7] As the WP team in Cheng San GRC were the "best losers" in an election in which there were fewer than six elected opposition Members of Parliament, they were offered one parliamentary seat as a Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP). Jeyaretnam was selected by the WP to be the NCMP, which he accepted.[8] Tang was sued by various PAP Ministers and fled. Jeyaretnam would lost his NCMP seat after being declared bankrupt in July 2001 as undischarged bankrupts are barred from serving in Parliament and running for parliamentary elections.[9]
2001: Abolition
After a hotly contested election in 1997, the GRC was split and subsumed into three GRCs prior to the 2001 general election.[10] The GRCs which absorbed Cheng San GRC were Ang Mo Kio GRC, Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC and Aljunied GRC due to redrawing of electoral districts by the Elections Department.[11]
Due to the unclear separation of power between the Prime Minister's Office and the Elections Department, the Opposition has often criticized the absorption of Cheng San GRC as gerrymandering on the part of the ruling party.[citation needed]
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Members of Parliament
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Note : Elections Department Singapore do not include rejected votes for calculation of candidate's vote share. Hence, the total of all candidates' vote share will be 100%.
Elections in 1980s
Elections in 1990s
References
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