Ang Mo Kio GRC: PM Lee leads team to resounding victory

The Ang Mo Kio GRC team led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong turned in a thumping win with 78.63 per cent of the vote, among the highest nationwide.

The result for the People's Action Party (PAP) team was also a strong 9.3 percentage point increase from the 69.33 per cent it garnered four years ago, when it faced a team from the Reform Party too.

Mr Lee arrived at Toa Payoh Stadium around midnight for the results, accompanied by his wife Ho Ching.

In his victory speech, Mr Lee, 63, thanked supporters for the resounding mandate. Beaming broadly, Mr Lee told them: "We are very grateful, we are very happy, we are very humbled by this result. We look forward to working with you, to make Ang Mo Kio a better place, to live, work and play. Tomorrow will be better than today. SG100 will be better than SG50."

Enthusiastic supporters later lifted the Prime Minister and carried him on their shoulders around the stadium to non-stop cheers.

His team included Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar, 39, Mr Ang Hin Kee, 49, and Mr Gan Thiam Poh, 51. New faces on the Ang Mo Kio PAP team were Mr Darryl David, 44, and colorectal surgeon Koh Poh Koon, 43.

Dr Koh, who had contested and lost the 2013 Punggol East by-election, said: "It's an awesome responsibility. It's a mandate to serve and to contribute."

After the sample count showed that the Reform Party had secured only 22 per cent of the vote, PAP's Mr Ang said he was "quietly confident" that they would improve on their 2011 performance.

The six-member Reform Party team was led by lawyer M. Ravi, 46, blogger Roy Ngerng, 34, career counsellor Gilbert Goh, 54, entrepreneur Osman Sulaiman, 40, former banker Jesse Loo, 52, and media trainer Siva Chandran, 31.

Team leader Mr Ravi was not seen all night, while the team members dispersed even before the results were officially announced. Mr Loo attributed the team's "poor" performance to the feel-good vibes from the SG50 celebrations, the change in the electoral boundaries and the presence of new citizens in Fernvale, for example.

Mr Ngerng, who was sued for defamation by Mr Lee last year, said: "To the new Government, I hope that they will continue to put CPF and population issues as the key issues on the table and to debate them vigorously to ensure that Singaporeans are able to get back their CPF or to ensure that the returns are good enough."

PAP supporter Mohd Rafiq, 61, who was cheering the result at Toa Payoh stadium, said: "I am very happy with the big win. Going into the election, we were a bit worried it would be 50/50, but I guess Singaporeans have shown where their support lies."

Yesterday's election was Mr Lee's fifth contest since he entered politics in 1984. He won his Teck Ghee ward twice, in 1984 and 1988, when it was a single seat. In 1991, the ward was absorbed into Ang Mo Kio GRC, which was uncontested until 2006.

sushyan@sph.com.sg
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This article was first published on September 12, 2015.
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