The constituency reshuffle, the five changes in the west

With the rapid development of Dengjia New Town in Fengjia North District and the population surged, the west, which is regarded as the hot spot of the next election, will not unexpectedly see a large-scale constituency reorganization.

Lianhe Zaobao compiled five major changes in the West that you have to know based on the report of the National Constituency Review Committee released on Tuesday (March 11).

The Fengga North single constituency has grown significantly due to the development of new HDB flats in Tengga and Bukit Batoshi and will continue to develop rapidly in the next few years. Due to the excessive number of voters, it is impossible to continue to be retained as a single constituency.

The number of voters in Fengjia North District increased by more than 60% compared with the previous general election, reaching 45,586.

Therefore, the Tengjia New Town in Fengjia North District was included in the Choa Chu Kang Group Constituency. The Bukit Gombak and Hillview of the Choa Chu Kang Gang Constituency became the new Bukit Gombak.

Currently responsible for the Bukit Gambo District Affairs is Liu Yanling, a member of the Choi Chu Kang Constituency.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry Yan Jinyong is the third leading minister of the Choi Chu Kang Gang Constituency. He led the People's Action Party team in the last general election and defeated the Singapore Progressive Party with a vote of 58.64%. In the 2015 general election, Yan Jinyong's team defeated the People's Power Party with a high vote rate of 76.91%; in the 2011 general election, he won the 61.2% vote.

Other members of parliament include: Senior Minister of Administration of Culture, Community and Youth, Liu Yanling, Huang Wenhong, and Zhou Kainian.

The existing Fengjia North District is a new single constituency divided from the adjacent Fengjia Ji constituency in 2011. Dr. Xu Lianshu, a member of the PAP, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Environment and Senior Minister of Government of the Ministry of Transport, has been stationed in this district since 2001 and played in the league in 2011 and 2015, and has won more than 70% of the votes, and is known as the “post-single constituency vote”.

Even with the above adjustments, the number of voters in the northern Fengga District of Bukit Batossi is still too high and is increasing rapidly.

The Committee recommends that the rest of Fengga North, namely Bukit Batoshi, be combined with the adjacent Bukit Batoshi District and part of Yuhua District, form a new Jurong East-Bukit Batok constituency.

This also means that the three original single constituencies in the west, Fengga Bei, Bukit Bato and Yuhua will disappear on the constituency map.

Bukit Bato District Practice MP Mu Renli won 54.8% of the votes in the last general election, defeating Singapore Democratic Party Secretary-General Xu Shunquan for the second time and successfully defended the seat. At that time, Xu Shunquan, who ran for the sixth time, won 45.2% of the vote, which was his best record since his election. Bukit Bato District resigned due to former MP Wang Jinfa's involvement in extramarital affairs and held a by-election in May 2016. Mu Renli and Xu Shun-jung played for the first time at that time. On July 1, 2024, Mu Renli became the Minister of Government of the Ministry of Justice and the Minister of Transportation.

PAP MP and Minister of Sustainable Development and Environment Fu Haiyan has been in charge of Yuhua District since 2006. After Yuhua District became a single constituency in 2011, she defeated Democratic candidates in the past two elections, and also achieved a high vote rate of 73.55% in the last election.

In order to make no more than five seats in the new Jurong East-Bukit Bato Gathering Constituency, the committee made two adjustments to the part of the Jurong Gathering Constituency:

The new Jurong Central SMC is designated to include parts of the Jurong Gathering Constituency and Yuhua District.

Jurong West and Daman Jurong are classified into the adjacent West Coast Gathering Constituency, forming the West Coast-Jurong West Constituency.

This also means that the Jurong Group constituency is divided into four, which are classified into the new Jurong East-Bukit Bato Gathering Constituency, the West Coast-Jurong West and Jurong Middle Singles Constituency, and the original Dutch-Bukit Timah Gathering Constituency.

Since the establishment of the Jurong Gathering Constituency in 2001, Shandaman, then the Minister of State Counsel and Social Policy Coordination, has been in charge of this iron vote base, and the PAP's vote rate has never been less than 65%. In the last general election, the PAP beat the Red Dot Concentrator with 74.61% of the votes and once again won the “vote king” in the constituency.

In July 2023, Shandaman, who is in charge of Daman Jurong District, stepped down from his political position and ran for president, and the constituency was missing a seat and a leading minister.

The person responsible for the Jurong Central District zoning affairs is Xie Yaoquan, a member of the Jurong Group Constituency.

The new West Coast – Jurong West Gathering Constituency retains about 80% of the former West Coast Constituency and includes Jurong West and Daman Jurong of Jurong Group.

The West Coast Gathering Constituency is the constituency with the smallest gap in victory or defeat in the last general election. The Action Party team, led by Minister of National Development Lee Ji-sung and former Minister of Transport Yi Hua-in, faced the opponent's Forward Party, with only a gap of 3.36% or 4,662 votes. This also made the Forward Party founded by Chen Qingmu in 2019 make a breakthrough. Although it did not win a seat in the last general election, it allowed Secretary-General Pan Qunqin and Liang Wenhui to become non-constituency councillors.

The West Coast District of the next general election was impacted by the incident of Yi Huaren's resignation during official duties. What kind of platoon of the PAP in the new West Coast-Jurong West Jiji constituency and whether it can defend the west has become the focus of attention.

The rest of the former West Coast Constituency that was not incorporated into the West Coast-Jurong West Coast Constituency:

The West Coast Constituency Councilor who is responsible for the grassroots affairs of Telok Blanya is Wang Xinyan.

The Queenstown, currently belonging to the Tanjong Pagar Constituency, will become the new Queenstown.

The Tanjong Pagar Constituency Constituency currently responsible for grassroots affairs in Queenstown is Cai Ruilong, senior deputy governor of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Social and Family Development.

The Action Party team, led by Education Minister Chen Zhensheng, in the Tanjong Pagar Constituency, won 63.10% of the votes in the last general election and defeated the Progressive Party. Although this constituency, established in 1991, is an old constituency, there were no opposition challenges in the elections from 1991 to 2011 during the late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Voters in the district voted for the first time in 2015, when the PAP won 77.71% of the vote.

Other members of the district include: Minister of the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister of Finance and the Ministry of National Development, Chen Shenghui, Minister of Government of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Culture, Community and Youth, and Zuan Qingxin.

Latin Mass District is the “vote king” of the PAP's single constituency for many years. In the last general election, Yang Yicai, who was originally a member of the Tanjong Pagar Constituency, was sent to “single” to fight the adjacent Latin Mass, and won the election with a high vote of 74.01%, becoming the single constituency with the highest votes in the PAP. In the 2015 general election, although Chen Zhenquan, the runner-up Ministry of Social and Family Development and Foreign Affairs Minister, faced a triangular war, the vote rate was still as high as 77.25%, which was also the highest vote rate among all single constituencies.