GE2020: WP's Leon Perera explains Parliamentary supermajority with football analogy

GE2020: WP's Leon Perera explains Parliamentary supermajority with football analogy
PHOTO: Facebook/leonperera70, Unsplash

Set to cast your vote on July 10 but still scratching your head when it comes to Parliamentary terms such as "simple majority" and "supermajority"?

For the more sports-inclined, the Workers' Party's (WP) Leon Perera has just the analogy to break it down for you.

Allowing one political party to have a supermajority in Parliament is tantamount to giving a football club control of the English Premier League, Perera explained in a Facebook post today (July 6).

A supermajority refers to a situation in which one party holds more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, while a simple majority is when one party holds more than half of the seats in Parliament.

The People's Action Party won 83 out of 89 seats up for election in 2015, achieving a 93 per cent supermajority.

With a simple majority, a party can amend and pass laws unilaterally. However, these laws will still be subject to the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore.

With a supermajority, the party has the power to amend the Constitution unilaterally.

To illustrate his point, Perera brought up the amendment made to the Constitution in 2016 which created the reserved Presidency.

"This is tantamount to letting someone set the rules and even change the rules halfway when they are themselves a competitor," he wrote.

According to Perera, the football equivalent would be Liverpool or Manchester United having control over the English Premier League.

"That club would then have control over setting fixtures, appointing referees and tweaking the rules of the game. That club would be in charge of the League but also be a competitor within that League."

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/515366291954885/posts/1598405703650933[/embed]

Perera's post echoed WP's push for more elected opposition MPs in Parliament.

Party chief Pritam Singh had said at the launch of the party's manifesto last month: "We need elected Workers' Party MPs to be voted into Parliament so that they can serve the public... Elected opposition MPs strengthen our democracy and our political processes."

WP newcomer and Sengkang GRC candidate Jamus Lim also brought the issue up during a live political debate on July 1, saying that WP was working to deny the PAP a "blank cheque".

kimberlylim@asiaone.com

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