SINGAPORE - The boundaries of Marine Parade GRC will change significantly at the next general election, with the five-member constituency absorbing all of MacPherson SMC.
It will also take in an adjacent polling district from Mountbatten SMC, and cede polling districts from the Chai Chee Housing Board estates and Siglap private estates to East Coast GRC.
In its report released on March 11, the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee also recommended moving some polling districts from Potong Pasir SMC to Marine Parade GRC, given the new HDB developments in Bidadari that have increased the population in the single seat.
Marine Parade GRC will be renamed Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC to better reflect the identities of the geographical areas in the constituency, the committee said.
The renamed group representation constituency will have 131,493 electors, down from 139,738 registered voters in 2020.
Marine Parade GRC was hotly contested in the 2020 general election, with the People’s Action Party garnering 57.76 per cent of the vote against the Workers’ Party (WP).
Political observers expect another keen fight this round, with the WP set to contest again and the PAP team losing former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin, who resigned in 2023 after an extramarital affair.
The polling districts in Chai Chee and Siglap that will become part of East Coast GRC are currently overseen by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong.
Mr Tong, who is MP for Joo Chiat ward, stepped in as first adviser to the grassroots organisations in the Kembangan-Chai Chee ward after Mr Tan’s resignation. PAP new face Choo Pei Ling, an assistant professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology’s health and social sciences cluster, is the second adviser.
The other MPs in the GRC - Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, Mr Seah Kian Peng and Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman - also helped to cover the former Speaker’s duties.
The boundaries of Marine Parade GRC has shifted over the years after its formation in 1988.
In 1997, the GRC absorbed the Braddell Heights single seat, while MacPherson was carved out.
Today, the 5-member GRC comprises five wards - Joo Chiat, Geylang Serai, Braddell Heights, Kembangan-Chai Chee and Marine Parade.
The latest boundary changes see MacPherson returning to the GRC’s fold. It is helmed by Ms Tin Pei Ling, who garnered 71.74 per cent of the votes during the 2020 election.
The PAP’s vote vote share in Marine Parade dropped from 64.07 per cent in 2015 to 57.76 per cent in 2020, following the retirement of Emeritus Senior Minster Goh Chok Tong, who helmed the GRC for decades.
Mr Goh, who was Singapore’s second prime minister from 1990 to 2004, had represented Marine Parade for 44 years, starting in 1976, when Marine Parade was a SMC.
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