Punggol East By-Election Later News Update

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=1]2013-01-16 Day 1 Campaign[/h]Updated <abbr title="Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8:30am" data-utime="1358382635" class="timestamp">3 hours ago</abbr>

Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=1]2013-01-16 Day 1 Campaign[/h]Updated <abbr title="Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8:30am" data-utime="1358382635" class="timestamp">3 hours ago</abbr>

Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=1]2013-01-16 Day 1 Campaign[/h]Updated <abbr title="Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8:30am" data-utime="1358382635" class="timestamp">3 hours ago</abbr>

Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=1]2013-01-16 Day 1 Campaign[/h]Updated <abbr title="Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8:30am" data-utime="1358382635" class="timestamp">3 hours ago</abbr>

Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=1]2013-01-16 Day 1 Campaign[/h]Updated <abbr title="Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8:30am" data-utime="1358382635" class="timestamp">3 hours ago</abbr>

Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

2013-01-16 Day 1 Campaign

Updated <abbr title="Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8:30am" data-utime="1358382635" class="timestamp">3 hours ago</abbr>

Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

Robert Half · Jan 17, 2013

Bro Sengkang,

Kindly update us on the WP rally schedules.

Thanks :p

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

Robert Half said:
Bro Sengkang,

Kindly update us on the WP rally schedules.

Thanks :p

sure, np, once i have the new, cheer!

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=5]The Workers' Party
[/h][h=5]Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

[/h]

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

The Workers' Party

Immediately after nomination closed at North Vista Secondary School, WP volunteers fanned out to all precincts in Punggol East to distribute flyers containing Li Lian's message to residents.

Li Lian proceeded to meet residents at Rivervale Plaza and commenced with door-to-door house visits, starting with the blocks that she was not able to visit during GE2011. Several residents were anticipating her visit as they remember her from GE2011 and are looking forward to have another Workers' Party representative in Parliament.

In the evening, Li Lian continued with house visits after a quick dinner with some WP volunteers. The team was encouraged by the warm support shown by many Punggol East residents. Two Punggol East residents Li Lian managed to catch up with are Mr and Mrs Chew. Mrs Chew was Li Lian''s former science teacher in secondary school who is proud of her former student!

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=1]By-election a barometer for WP: Lee Li Lian[/h]

Workers' Party candidate Lee Li Lian greeting residents at Kangkar LRT station during her morning walkabout at Punggol East SMC on Jan 17, 2012. -- PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

By Elgin Toh
Workers' Party candidate Lee Li Lian said on Thursday that the Punggol East by-election is also a barometer for how well her party has performed since the last general election.
WP chairman Sylvia Lim had said on Monday that the election would be a test of the Government's performance.
Asked by reporters ahead of a meet and greet session if her party was also under scrutiny, Ms Lee said yes.
The election will show if people have the confidence to vote for the WP, based on their track record, she added.
Ms Lee also said that in her conversations with residents on the campaign trail so far, she has received feedback about the lack of feeder bus services, childcare services and other amenities.
Ms Lee hopes to visit every household over the nine days of campaigning, starting with the ones she failed to cover at the last general election. During the 2011 campaign, she covered 60 per cent of households, she said.

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=2]The politics of "close fights"[/h]

Posted on Jan 16, 2013 9:31 PM Updated: Jan 16, 2013 9:31 PM

By Rachel Chang
[email protected]

In the five minutes that he spoke to reporters yesterday after nomination proceedings for the Punggol East by-election, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said that it would be a “close fight” four times.

People’s Action Party candidate Koh Poh Koon characterised it that way too, as did PAP activists and MPs.
It looks set to be so.

Ms Lee Li Lian of the Workers’ Party (WP) won 41 per cent of the vote in the 2011 General Election against former Speaker Michael Palmer, and the latter’s disgraceful exit may dent the PAP’s voteshare this time around, just as the WP’s national prominence may increase theirs.

But that the PAP is not assured of a win is also a careful message to voters.
It has long been party wisdom that some of the 30 to 40 per cent of the electorate that votes for the opposition is not doing so because they do not support the Government.

Rather, confident that the PAP will be returned to government and they face no actual threat of disruption or deterioration in their standards of living, they cast their votes for opposition candidates with ease.

This uniquely Singaporean voter behaviour was cemented into an opposition game plan by Mr Chiam See Tong in 1991.

The strategy was for the opposition to field candidates for fewer than half the seats in Parliament, returning the PAP to power on Nomination Day.
Then, voters who want a PAP Government but also more opposition in Parliament can have their cake and eat it too.

In 1991, an unprecedented four opposition MPs were elected, although some have argued that the strategy was not the biggest factor.
PAP leaders answered the by-election strategy in 1997 by “localising” General Elections. This was done through the threat of withholding benefits, such as Housing Board upgrading, from opposition wards. Each constituency then held its fate in its own hands.

DPM Teo, in the same brief remarks to reporters yesterday, also sought to frame the Punggol East race as a local one, about who can better improve and take care of the ward.

After all, residents have thrown up a myriad of local concerns, from stalled upgrading at Rivervale Plaza, to poor transport connectivity and the lack of a hawker centre.
The PAP’s message to Punggol East voters is thus a two-pronged one: this by-election will have a real impact on your standard of living. So, playing fast and loose with your vote in what is a close race - voting for an opposition candidate, for example, to help him keep his deposit - could easily end in tears.

But there are reasons the message may fall on deaf ears.
The first is that with the entry of two other smaller opposition parties to take from the WP’s support, voters perhaps sense that the PAP may win as the opposition vote splits, even if its vote share falls below 50 per cent. They may not actually believe that the race will be that close.

The second is that a similar message fell flat in Aljunied GRC in 2011. Then, the PAP slate led by former Foreign Minister George Yeo tried to “localise” the race, presenting a five-year plan to develop the constituency.

However, the Workers’ Party’s national message about a First World Parliament trumped local issues.
Aljunied voters gave the GRC to the WP, who won with a better-than-expected 54.7 per cent.

The Punggol East race will have no impact on who steers the national ship, which may, via the by-election effect, help the opposition.
But the PAP remains best-placed to improve amenities and infrastructure on the ground, which may, via the localising effect, help the ruling party.
Which dynamic will prevail depends on how the political winds blow over the next nine days. Either way, it will indeed be a close fight.

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

The cheers, jeers and songs of Nomination Day

Posted on Jan 16, 2013 9:05 PM Updated: Jan 16, 2013 9:05 PM By Tessa Wong

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Amid the sea of followers clad in blue and white at North Vista Secondary School on Tuesday, two smaller dots of yellow and green battled in vain for attention.

The supporters of Reform Party (RP) and Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) may have been greatly outnumbered, but they valiantly tried their best to make themselves heard from the back of the field.

Minutes after 12.30pm, when the deadline for objections to candidates’ forms had passed, RP’s candidate Kenneth Jeyaretnam took to the stage to give a speech.

As his voice boomed across the field, a group of about ten RP supporters in yellow shirts chanted their secretary-general’s surname: “Je-ya-ret-nam! Je-ya-ret-nam!”

Then it was SDA’s candidate Desmond Lim’s turn.
Up went the SDA flags, bearing the revamped party logo of four circles to represent the four different races in Singapore.
Most of the 20 SDA activists in neon green shirts were polytechnic students, and some of them are too young to even vote. But that did not deter them from shouting Mr Lim’s name at the top of their voices.

Still, the rowdiest group were those in light blue.
Crammed in front of the stage, the WP activists cheerfully hoisted red flags with the party’s hammer logo. While waiting for the nomination process to end, they periodically launched into popular Hokkien ditty “Ai Pia Jia Eh Yia”, which title means one must fight to win.

Not to be outdone, the PAP supporters shouted: “Majulah PAP!” Their cries changed when Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean showed up on the field, as they chanted the names of Mr Teo and their candidate Dr Koh Poh Koon.

But just as it was during Nomination Day in the Hougang by-election, those standing in the WP camp jeered and shouted through the speeches of the other candidates, despite numerous requests from party leaders not to.

Mr Lim received the brunt of it, with some WP supporters calling him names. Mr Lim has been seen by some as being a spoiler of WP’s chances in Punggol East in the 2011 general election.

Attracted by the noise, curious members of the public gathered outside the field and on a nearby overhead bridge to watch.
Residents in the housing blocks facing the school also leaned out of their windows.

Others ventured into the field to get a closer look. Mingling among them were would-be independent candidates Zeng Guoyan and Ooi Boon Ewe. Both had claimed they could not contest because of problems with their papers.

Undaunted, Mr Ooi was seen on the field asking residents to be his assentors, in a scene that was a repeat of his attempt to contest in Sengkang West in 2011.

Meanwhile, Mr Zeng wandered the field chanting WP slogans while wearing a red and white keffiyeh, a type of Arabic headdress.
When asked why he had stayed on, Mr Zeng referred to WP’s candidate Lee Li Lian saying: “I want to make sure that she is in before I walk out.”

sengkang · Jan 17, 2013

[h=1]2013-01-17 Day 2 Campaign[/h]<abbr title="January 17, 2013" data-utime="1358404598">Today</abbr> ·