GE2025: In aspiring for political maturity, should Singaporeans look beyond just being able to vote? (2025)

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SINGAPORE – It was at the 2011 General Election that Singapore last saw a walkover.

With all seats contested for two consecutive elections since then, it came as a shock that Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC went uncontested on Nomination Day earlier this week, sending five PAP candidates into Parliament.

Some residents told The Straits Times they were shocked, disappointed, and “let down” that they would not be able to exercise their right to vote on May 3.

Opposition parties piled on to criticise the Workers’ Party, which everyone had assumed for months would return to contest the group representation constituency but eventually did not field a team.

Cries of “opposition unity” hung on the lips of various opposition figures, as they lamented the lack of communication between the WP and the other parties that would have been more than happy to field a team in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights.

In a short amount of time, Singaporeans have become accustomed to having the chance to mark a simple X next to a party logo, an exercise in democracy that will inform the next five years of nation building.

But for the country to move forward, we may need to accept that with political maturity comes strategic decisions by political parties that voters could find hard to swallow – including not getting the chance to vote.

The right to vote

Singapore, with its 60 years of independence, has not had a very long electoral history.

The 2006 election was the first time in 18 years that the PAP did not return to power immediately on Nomination Day.

In that election, 47 seats were contested, with walkovers for the remaining 37 seats. It was the biggest election since the 1980s, and then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s first as head of government.

In 2011, almost every constituency was contested – except for Tanjong Pagar GRC. That was also the year the WP won its first GRC in Aljunied.

Four years later, The Straits Times’ page 1 headline post-Nomination Day was “No walkovers, 2.46m to vote on Sept 11” – highlighting the first time in Singapore’s political historythat every eligible voter would be going to the ballot.

The precedent had been set.

There was talk of Singapore’s political landscape becoming more contested, marking a step towards political maturity that the country had not seen before, and away from one-party rule.

In 2020, all seats were contested again. Apart from the WP winning a second GRC, a second political party – the then newly formed Progress Singapore Party – earned two seats in Parliament for Non-Constituency MPs, which observers also viewed as another step in Singapore’s political development.

Getting the opportunity to vote has become an entitlement that Singaporeans feel they have earned, as a democratic society.

Despite what is actually a very short history of everyone having the chance to vote, we have also come to expect that the opposition will provide us with a choice every five years.

The Institute of Policy Studies’ Asian Barometer Survey, which asked Singaporeans what democracy meant to them, found that Singaporeans believe being able to choose government leaders in free and fair elections is among the most essential dimensions of a democracy.

The outrage over the walkover in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights is hence closely linked to the belief in this “right to vote”.

This expectation has driven the proliferation and persistence of smaller opposition parties, which routinely find their way to the nomination centres every five years, with varying degrees of legwork done in between each election.

That over 90 per cent of Singaporeans turn out to vote every time suggests that Singaporeans take the right to exercise their votes very seriously.

The fact that, at a base level, some 30 per cent of Singaporean voters continue to throw their support behind the opposition indicates there is a segment of society that wants to have a choice, and a different one.

A politically maturing society

Over the past few years, we have seen PAP leaders acknowledge that political contestation is here to stay.

They have also pointed out that Singaporeans have become more diverse in their aspirations and views.

These are no doubt all markers of a politically maturing society.

But as Singapore and Singaporeans continue to progress on this journey, we should then look at the Marine Parade-Braddell Heights walkover through this lens.

After months of secrecy, the WP finally revealed where it would contest in the 2025 General Election on Nomination Day itself.

It dropped Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, which it had contested in 2020 and 2015 under its previous iteration as Marine Parade GRC.

The WP appeared fully aware that its choices might result in a walkover, as the National Solidarity Party had publicly announced its withdrawal days before.

In a message to voters about an hour after the deadline for nomination, WP chief Pritam Singh said it had been a very difficult decision for a “small opposition party”.

The WP had to think about where and how best to deploy its limited resources, following the release of the electoral boundaries report in March, he said.

He said the WP had determined that to continue fighting for its principles – which include a vision of a more balanced political system – and to give its candidates “the best chance of electoral success”, the party had to focus its best efforts on a smaller number of constituencies.

Mr Singh’s words make clear that the party’s priority is to win more seats in Parliament to achieve its goals.

This would mean making strategic choices that not all voters – especially those in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights – might agree with.

Whether this will pay off, we will see on May 3.

But if Singapore is to aspire towards political maturity, we should be okay with parties making choices that prioritise a larger goal.

Simply offering Singaporeans a chance to vote will not cut it any more. Opposition parties that want to actually be elected into Parliament will have to do more than that.

What the WP has done this time has bucked the usual expectations of the opposition.

Yes, we want to vote. But beyond that, we desire to be empowered in making decisions that affect both ourselves and the country.

This is a step towards an active citizenry, and not the politically apathetic group that we have oft been labelled as.

If we want to put political parties in Parliament to represent our views, we need to allow them – whether the incumbent or opposition – to make decisions that will help them win the seats.

Are we ready for that?

• Goh Yan Han is political correspondent at The Straits Times. She writesUnpacked, a weekly newsletteron Singapore politics and policy.

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