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Last Friday’s release of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee’s (EBRC) report has generated intense speculation as to when Parliament will be dissolved and the Writ of Election issued.
The report, which took about two months to prepare, came 11 days after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in Parliament that he had convened the EBRC in May. Its publication was without undue delay — it was submitted to PM Lee on July 21 and published on July 24.
Predictably, the EBRC duly delivered on its terms of reference by reducing the average size of Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) from five to 4.75, and adding an additional single-member constituency (SMC) and one GRC. In total, 89 seats will be up for contest in the next General Election (GE).
However, the EBRC did not elaborate in sufficient detail about how the boundaries had been redrawn beyond the generic explanation of population shifts and housing development since the last boundary delineation exercise in February 2011. This was a wasted opportunity and will only result in accusations of gerrymandering, even though changes in the EBRC report were not drastic.
There was no return of the three-member GRCs, which featured only in the 1988 GE when the GRC scheme was first introduced. Surprisingly, the EBRC recommended retaining the two six-member GRCs, currently helmed by PM Lee (Ang Ko Kio GRC) and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).
Will we see new or never-elected candidates being heavily stacked in these two mega GRCs to ride on the personal popularity of the Prime Minister and Mr Teo?
(What do you think?)
TODAY
The report, which took about two months to prepare, came 11 days after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in Parliament that he had convened the EBRC in May. Its publication was without undue delay — it was submitted to PM Lee on July 21 and published on July 24.
Predictably, the EBRC duly delivered on its terms of reference by reducing the average size of Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) from five to 4.75, and adding an additional single-member constituency (SMC) and one GRC. In total, 89 seats will be up for contest in the next General Election (GE).
However, the EBRC did not elaborate in sufficient detail about how the boundaries had been redrawn beyond the generic explanation of population shifts and housing development since the last boundary delineation exercise in February 2011. This was a wasted opportunity and will only result in accusations of gerrymandering, even though changes in the EBRC report were not drastic.
There was no return of the three-member GRCs, which featured only in the 1988 GE when the GRC scheme was first introduced. Surprisingly, the EBRC recommended retaining the two six-member GRCs, currently helmed by PM Lee (Ang Ko Kio GRC) and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).
Will we see new or never-elected candidates being heavily stacked in these two mega GRCs to ride on the personal popularity of the Prime Minister and Mr Teo?
(What do you think?)
TODAY
