A charged election campaign ended in Singapore late on Thursday after nine days of the ruling party and the opposition trading accusations about negative politics, forging an uneasy truce to denounce race politics and arguing the need for a strong cabinet versus a plural parliament.
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Then there were memes about how one was not gay, how the sun always rose whatever one felt about it and foul-mouthed rants of a hot-headed candidate, along with the serious topic of an aborted sale of home-grown insurance giant NTUC Income to German insurer Allianz.
Concerns over how the 9 per cent goods and services tax (GST) – increased last year from 8 per cent – had also added to the rising cost of living among residents, despite the flood of support vouchers.
Against this wide gamut of issues, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), led for the first time at the polls by Lawrence Wong as prime minister, sought to keep the focus on the dangers of a “changing world” amid an escalating tariff war threatening the country’s open economy.
But the opposition kept hammering home the message of the need for a balanced parliament with its members able to check the government and help it do better.
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Friday is Cooling-Off Day, a time when all campaigning is prohibited. On May 3, around 2.75 million voters will go to the polls, including a notable group of first-time voters – over 224,000 Singaporeans aged 20 to 24.
“It boils down to where the political system should be headed,” said Eugene Tan, law don from the Singapore Management University (SMU), who added that “one-party dominance is under the microscope”, with the opposition using bread-and-butter concerns to highlight the limits of the ruling party’s dominance.