![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
Yesterday, 11:13 PM
[Marge Simpson]
Since the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee 2025 report was released about two weeks, there has been significant public commentary, especially by young Singaporeans questioning the fairness of the political boundary redrawing process by the PAP government.
Gerrymandering?
“It happens in Western democracies too! Where do you think the word came from?”
This was one intervention of the PAP in parliament when confronted with facts that showed how the boundaries of SMCs or GRCs - which see close electoral fights between the opposition and PAP - change or disappear by the time the next general elections come around.
For many keen political observers of the latest EBRC 2025 report, incredulity abound when “population growth” was cited to be the reason behind one of the most radical redrawing of boundaries Singapore has seen in recent memory.
Boundaries are important, and the reasons that justify their changes, matters. A lot.
In 2016, during the Bukit Batok SMC by-election, then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a media interview that PAP candidate and Grassroots Adviser Murali Pillai would already have been a Member of Parliament had a part of Aljunied GRC been an SMC at GE2015.
How so? In 2015, Murali Pillai was a member of the losing PAP Aljunied team. The division he oversaw as the People’s Association Grassroots Adviser and PAP branch chairman polled higher than the other divisions of his PAP colleagues in Aljunied GRC.
Apart from highlighting that no opposition constituency is a safe-seat and the risk of an opposition wipe-out is an ever-existent reality, Lee’s revelation was instructive. The results of individual wards and precincts, even in GRCs, are closely watched.
It is not out of place for Singaporeans to wonder how Singaporeans in the 15 precincts (in yellow below) that have been cut out from the former Marine Parade GRC into East Coast GRC cast their vote in GE2020. Perhaps the former PM or someone from the PAP can make that information public too, and allow the public to draw its own conclusions.
Why is the work of the EBRC important for ordinary Singaporeans? Because we all seek a meaningful stake in the country we call home – for a functioning and robust social compact that creates trust, so that we are all invested in our shared future. This is the spirit captured by the Forward Singapore report – a report where fairness was upheld as a shared value of all Singaporeans.
But when question marks about fairness abound right from square one, on an issue as fundamental as how we organize ourselves politically as a nation, values like fairness can lose their meaning. And opaque institutions like the EBRC carry a real risk of being unwittingly divisive, putting paid to a united people – ironically, one that is needed most at a time of important geopolitical shifts, potential external shocks and demographic transition.
A report can be called anything. Forward Singapore, Singapore Together, Singapore 21 or Turbo-charge Singapore.
All the latest version of the EBRC report does, is to show us how much further we have to go to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality. But each generation can and must do its part. And become one united people.
Step up.
Let’s press on to build a more balanced political system. It can be done.
Useful Links:
——————
Prof Kevin Tan: Electoral Democracy and Boundaries - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ELuRVzgSlg
Jom Media: How did I get here? Gerrymandering in Singapore – https://www.jom.media/how-did-i-get-here...singapore/
CNA: GE2025 – For voters in redrawn GRCs, municipal issues are key, but some misgivings over perceived gerrymandering -https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/ge2025-grc-west-east-coast-marine-parade-aljunied-gerrymandering-ebrc-5000391
Rice Media: If electoral boundaries make no sense, the EBRC’s explanation only makes things more confusing - https://www.ricemedia.co/current-affairs...ense-ebrc/
TikTok: jo - https://www.tiktok.com/@suchabohr/video/...1069640978
Aloysuis on Medium: A Spatial and Statistical Analysis of Singapore’s EBRC 2025 report - https://medium.com/@aloysius-sg/spatial-...252951eb78
https://www.facebook.com/share/18VFqvPuzt/
![[Image: FB-IMG-1742915582352.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/36BXQNR/FB-IMG-1742915582352.jpg)
Since the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee 2025 report was released about two weeks, there has been significant public commentary, especially by young Singaporeans questioning the fairness of the political boundary redrawing process by the PAP government.
Gerrymandering?
“It happens in Western democracies too! Where do you think the word came from?”
This was one intervention of the PAP in parliament when confronted with facts that showed how the boundaries of SMCs or GRCs - which see close electoral fights between the opposition and PAP - change or disappear by the time the next general elections come around.
For many keen political observers of the latest EBRC 2025 report, incredulity abound when “population growth” was cited to be the reason behind one of the most radical redrawing of boundaries Singapore has seen in recent memory.
Boundaries are important, and the reasons that justify their changes, matters. A lot.
In 2016, during the Bukit Batok SMC by-election, then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a media interview that PAP candidate and Grassroots Adviser Murali Pillai would already have been a Member of Parliament had a part of Aljunied GRC been an SMC at GE2015.
How so? In 2015, Murali Pillai was a member of the losing PAP Aljunied team. The division he oversaw as the People’s Association Grassroots Adviser and PAP branch chairman polled higher than the other divisions of his PAP colleagues in Aljunied GRC.
Apart from highlighting that no opposition constituency is a safe-seat and the risk of an opposition wipe-out is an ever-existent reality, Lee’s revelation was instructive. The results of individual wards and precincts, even in GRCs, are closely watched.
It is not out of place for Singaporeans to wonder how Singaporeans in the 15 precincts (in yellow below) that have been cut out from the former Marine Parade GRC into East Coast GRC cast their vote in GE2020. Perhaps the former PM or someone from the PAP can make that information public too, and allow the public to draw its own conclusions.
Why is the work of the EBRC important for ordinary Singaporeans? Because we all seek a meaningful stake in the country we call home – for a functioning and robust social compact that creates trust, so that we are all invested in our shared future. This is the spirit captured by the Forward Singapore report – a report where fairness was upheld as a shared value of all Singaporeans.
But when question marks about fairness abound right from square one, on an issue as fundamental as how we organize ourselves politically as a nation, values like fairness can lose their meaning. And opaque institutions like the EBRC carry a real risk of being unwittingly divisive, putting paid to a united people – ironically, one that is needed most at a time of important geopolitical shifts, potential external shocks and demographic transition.
A report can be called anything. Forward Singapore, Singapore Together, Singapore 21 or Turbo-charge Singapore.
All the latest version of the EBRC report does, is to show us how much further we have to go to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality. But each generation can and must do its part. And become one united people.
Step up.
Let’s press on to build a more balanced political system. It can be done.
Useful Links:
——————
Prof Kevin Tan: Electoral Democracy and Boundaries - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ELuRVzgSlg
Jom Media: How did I get here? Gerrymandering in Singapore – https://www.jom.media/how-did-i-get-here...singapore/
CNA: GE2025 – For voters in redrawn GRCs, municipal issues are key, but some misgivings over perceived gerrymandering -https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/ge2025-grc-west-east-coast-marine-parade-aljunied-gerrymandering-ebrc-5000391
Rice Media: If electoral boundaries make no sense, the EBRC’s explanation only makes things more confusing - https://www.ricemedia.co/current-affairs...ense-ebrc/
TikTok: jo - https://www.tiktok.com/@suchabohr/video/...1069640978
Aloysuis on Medium: A Spatial and Statistical Analysis of Singapore’s EBRC 2025 report - https://medium.com/@aloysius-sg/spatial-...252951eb78
https://www.facebook.com/share/18VFqvPuzt/
![[+]](https://sgtalk.net/images/bootbb/collapse_collapsed.png)
![[Image: IMG-2174.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/wFwJF0Yt/IMG-2174.jpg)
