Singapore 2011 election results compared with 2006 results

Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party retained power by the smallest margin in more than 20 years. It won 60.1 per cent of the popular vote – less than the 61 per cent it received in the 1991 elections a few months after Goh Chok Tong became prime minister.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was the only top-rank PAP leader re-elected by a bigger margin than in 2006 when the party won 66.6 per cent of the popular vote.

Foreign Minister George Yeo lost his seat.

For the first time, the PAP lost a Group Representation Constituency since they were created in 1988 to ensure Indians, Malays and other ethnic minorities were represented in parliament.

The opposition won six of the 87 seats for elected MPs – a new record since four opposition MPs were elected in 1991 – and lost one seat, Potong Pasir, by just over a hundred votes.

The opposition Workers’ Party won the five seats of Aljunied, defeating George Yeo and his PAP team, and retained Hougang, which has one seat in parliament.

Aljunied was known to be a hot seat. The PAP won it by the smallest of margins – with 56 per cent of the votes – among all the GRCs in 2006.

But this time the PAP’s support dropped to that level in several other constituencies. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong held on to Marine Parade with 56.65 per cent of the vote, labour chief Lim Swee Say and Transport Minister Raymond Lim retained East Coast with  54.83 per cent, while Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng and Education Minister Ng Eng Hen kept Bishan-Toa Payoh – a safe seat uncontested by the opposition before – with 57 per cent.

The 76-year-old opposition leader Chiam See Tong, standing from Bishan-Toa Payoh for the first time, took more than 40 per cent of the vote. He left behind Potong Pasir, the constituency which had been sending him to parliament since 1984. His wife, Lina Chiam, stood from Potong Pasir, but lost by just 100 votes.  She was defeated by the PAP’s Sitoh Yin Pin, who had lost twice to her husband, by a margin of less than one per cent.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean won a commanding 65 per cent from Pasir Ris-Punggol against the opposition Singapore Democratic Alliance, which was considered so insignificant it was given only about two minutes of air time to make its political party broadcasts. The only ministers who polled more than Teo were Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong from Ang Mo Kio (69 per cent) against the Reform Party, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam from Jurong (67 per cent) against the National Solidarity Party and Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang (66.5 per cent) from West Coast against Kenneth Jeyaretnam and his Reform Party.

Other ministers who won more than 60 per cent – Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, from Chua Chu Kang (61.2 per cent); Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Vivian Balakrishnan, from Holland-Bukit Timah (60.1 per cent); Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan from Sembawang (nearly 64 per cent).

Group Representation Constituencies

Single-Member Constituencies

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3. Singapore election rallies: What the pictures show
4. The GRCs of Singapore
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