GE2025: 5 hot wards to watch

The electoral boundaries of Singapore have been redrawn — which means election season is almost here.

New faces from various political parties have been spotted on the ground over the past few months, with some opposition parties laying early claims on certain constituencies.

As recommended by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC), there will be 10 five-member GRCs and eight four-member GRCs, as well as 15 SMCs in the 2025 General Election (GE).

Particularly fierce contests are predicted to take place in some electoral divisions; here are five notable ones to keep an eye on.

Aljunied GRC

The first ever GRC to be won by an opposition party, Aljunied has been held by the Workers' Party (WP) since GE2011.

In GE2020, the WP team of Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, Faisal Manap, Gerald Giam and Leon Perera claimed Aljunied GRC with 85,603 votes (59.93 per cent).

The People's Action Party's (PAP) Victor Lye, Shamsul Kamar, Alex Yeo, Chua Eng Leong and Chan Hui Yuh received 57,244 votes (40.07 per cent).

Aljunied GRC will remain a five-member ward for GE2025, with a slight change in its electoral boundaries as polling districts in Tampines West are carved out and absorbed by Tampines GRC.

WP is expected to field at least one new candidate in Aljunied, for former MP Perera had resigned in July 2023 after admitting to an extramarital affair with then senior party member Nicole Seah.

On Feb 17 this year, WP chief and Leader of the Opposition Singh was found guilty of lying to a parliamentary committee in 2021 over former WP MP Raeesah Khan's lie in Parliament, and sentenced to fines of $7,000 for each of the two charges of lying.

After the sentencing, Singh told the media he intends to contest in this year's general election and said he will be appealing his conviction and sentence.

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Meanwhile, the PAP had announced on Feb 13 the appointments of Dr Adrian Ang, Daniel Liu and Dr Faisal Abdul Aziz as party chairpersons in Aljunied GRC.

According to their website, the two other PAP representatives in Aljunied are Chan Hui Yuh and Jagathishwaran Rajo.

Associate Professor Eugene Tan at the Singapore Management University's School of Law previously told AsiaOne that all PAP and WP contests will be "closely fought", even if they are not battleground constituencies.

Aljunied GRC will have 144,032 voters in GE2025. 

East Coast GRC

One of the fiercest fights of GE2020 was in East Coast GRC, which the PAP eventually won, securing 53.41 per cent of the votes against a WP slate. 

PAP's team of Heng Swee Keat, Dr Maliki Osman, Jessica Tan, Cheryl Chan and Tan Kiat How received 61,009 votes.

Opposition candidates Nicole Seah, Kenneth Foo, Terence Tan, Dylan Ng and Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim received 53,228 votes (46.59 per cent).

This was one of PAP's slimmest victories and WP's closest GRC loss in GE2020.

In a surprise move, the PAP had announced only on Nomination Day that Deputy Prime Minister Heng would contest in East Coast GRC.

He had served as the anchor minister for the neighbouring Tampines GRC and was anticipated to stay in that role.

The anchor minister also went viral while announcing the "East Coast Plan" during a rally speech — and has gamely embraced his blunder in a recent video on the progress of the plan.

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In WP's East Coast team, senior member Seah resigned in July 2023 after admitting to an affair with former party member and then Aljunied GRC MP Leon Perera.

The GRC will see changes to its electoral boundaries in GE2025 as it absorbs the Chai Chee and Siglap estates previously part of Marine Parade GRC. 

About a quarter of its voters, roughly 40,000, will be from Joo Chiat's private estates and Chai Chee's HDB flats. 

This influx, with a disproportionately high number living in private housing, will introduce unpredictability for East Coast ahead of the polls, said political observers, reported The Straits Times.

Senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, Gillian Koh, highlighted post-election surveys from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), which show that upper middle-class, better-educated voters are more inclined to value political pluralism and the presence of checks and balances in Parliament.

This GRC remains a five-MP ward.

East Coast GRC will have 150,691 voters in GE2025.

Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC

In GE2020, the PAP team of Tan Chuan-Jin, Edwin Tong, Seah Kian Peng, Mohd Fahmi Aliman and Dr Tan See Leng clinched Marine Parade GRC with 74,993 votes (57.76 per cent).

WP, whose candidates were Yee Jenn Jong, Ron Tan, Fadli Fawzi, Azhar Abdul Latip and Nathaniel Koh, received 54,850 votes (42.24 per cent).

Marine Parade was WP's second-closest GRC loss in GE2020.

The PAP's vote share in Marine Parade fell from 64.07 per cent in 2015 to 57.76 per cent in 2020, after the retirement of Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who had led the GRC for decades. 

In July 2023, Tan Chuan-Jin — who was also Speaker of Parliament — resigned from his posts after being revealed to have had an extramarital affair with former party member and then Tampines MP Cheng Li Hui.

He had also been involved in a hot mic incident in April 2023, in which he whispered "f***ing populist" after a speech by WP MP Jamus Lim in Parliament.

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Senior counsel Harpreet Singh Nehal has been spotted on the ground in Marine Parade GRC. He may form part of WP's slate in that GRC. 

The ward will see major boundary changes for GE2025 as it absorbs the whole of MacPherson SMC, which is helmed by PAP's Tin Pei Ling. It will also absorb two polling districts from Potong Pasir SMC and an adjacent polling district from Mountbatten SMC.

The Chai Chee HDB estates and the Siglap private estates of Marine Parade GRC will be carved out and moved to East Coast GRC.

The GRC will hence be renamed as Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC to better reflect the identities of the geographical areas it covers, said EBRC. It continues to have a five-member line-up.

Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC will have 131,493 voters in GE2025.

Punggol GRC

An area of the newly-formed Punggol GRC is previously part of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, which the PAP won in 2020 against opposition parties Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) and Peoples Voice (PV).

PAP's team of Teo Chee Hean, Dr Janil Puthucheary, Desmond Tan, Sharael Taha and Yeo Wan Ling received 100,772 votes (64.15 per cent).

Meanwhile, SDA candidates Desmond Lim, Abu Mohamed, Harminder Pal Singh, Kuswadi Atwani and Kelvin Ong received 37,179 votes (23.67 per cent) and PV's team of Gilbert Goh, Mohamed Nassir Ismail, Jireh Lim, Prabu Ramachandran and Vigneswari Ramachandran received 19,127 votes (12.18 per cent).

In this year's election, the Punggol estates in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC will be carved out and merged with Punggol West SMC to form a new four-MP Punggol GRC.

The move is due to population shifts and new housing developments, and will also better reflect the identity of estates in Punggol town, stated EBRC.

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Punggol West SMC is helmed by PAP member Sun Xueling, who is Minister of State for Social and Family Development and Minister of State for Home Affairs.

In 2020, Sun won Punggol West SMC with 15,637 votes (60.97 per cent) against WP's Tan Chen Chen who received 10,012 (39.03 per cent). 

According to a Straits Times report published February, WP members have been walking the ground in Punggol West and parts of Punggol town in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.

They include deputy organising secretary Tan Kong Soon, former Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian and former NCMP Yee Jenn Jong.

Speaking to AsiaOne on Tuesday (March 11) on the key battleground constituencies for the upcoming GE, independent political observer Dr Felix Tan commented that the new Punggol GRC comprises "a lot of younger voters and newer estates" which may "shift voting patterns around".

Punggol GRC will have 123,557 voters in GE2025.

West Coast-Jurong West GRC

In the 2020 election, West Coast GRC was the site of the tightest battle and had the smallest vote margin of 3.36 per cent.

PAP candidates S Iswaran, Desmond Lee, Foo Mee Har, Ang Wei Neng and Rachel Ong obtained 71,545 votes (51.69 per cent), narrowly winning the constituency over the Progress Singapore Party (PSP).

The PSP team of Dr Tan Cheng Bock, Leong Mun Wai, Hazel Poa, Jeffrey Khoo and Nadarajah Loganathan received 66,871 votes (48.31 per cent).

Former transport minister S Iswaran had been serving West Coast GRC as MP since 1997, but resigned from his posts in January 2024 amid corruption charges.

He was sentenced to 12 months' jail for obtaining gifts as a public servant and obstruction of justice, and began his sentence on Oct 7, 2024. 

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In GE2025, some estates in Jurong West and Taman Jurong will move to the adjacent West Coast GRC, forming a new West Coast-Jurong West GRC, said EBRC.

The Eastern-most polling district of the current West Coast GRC, comprising estates in Harbourfront and Sentosa, will be carved out and placed under Radin Mas SMC. Additionally, polling districts in the Dover and Telok Blangah estates will be moved to the adjacent Tanjong Pagar GRC.

The Taman Jurong division of Jurong GRC was represented by then Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who resigned from politics in June 2023 to run for president.

Analysts which AsiaOne spoke to on March 12 predict the West Coast-Jurong West GRC will see a tight contest.

West Coast-Jurong West GRC will have 158,581 voters in GE2025.

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com