GE2020 official results: Shanmugam's PAP team retains Nee Soon GRC with 61.9 per cent of the vote

The PAP's Nee Soon GRC candidates (from left) Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, Carrie Tan Huimin, K. Shanmugam, Derrick Goh and Louis Ng Kok Kwang. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

SINGAPORE - The People's Action Party (PAP) team led by Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam held Nee Soon GRC for a third time, winning 61.9 per cent of the vote share at the polls on Friday (July 10).

Their challengers for the five-member GRC, the Progress Singapore Party (PSP), received 38.1 per cent.

Mr Shanmugam's team includes Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, 52, and Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang, 41, as well as two new faces, banker Derrick Goh, 52, and charity founder Carrie Tan Huimin, 38.

Ms Tan replaces Nee Soon South stalwart Lee Bee Wah, a popular MP who was one of the most colourful presences in Parliament.

In a video posted on Facebook, Mr Shanmugam thanked Nee Soon residents for giving his team their mandate, saying: "I promise that my team and I will do our very best to make your lives and your children's lives better and Nee Soon a better place to live in."

Ms Tan added: "Thank you for giving us once again a vote of confidence.

"We will continue to work hard and like what my colleague Mr Louis Ng says, we will continue to listen with our ears and listen with our hearts and fulfil and deliver our promises to you over the next five years to make Nee Soon a great place to live in."

The PSP slate comprised chartered accountant and party treasurer Sri Nallakaruppan, 56, media consultant Bradley Bowyer, 53, adult educator Kala Manickam, 52, IT project manager Taufik Supan, 40, and customer service manager Damien Tay, 51.

They had campaigned on broad national issues such as securing more jobs for Singaporeans, freezing the goods and service tax and making housing more affordable.

At the party's press conference at its headquarters at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, PSP Nee Soon leader Damien Tay thanked Nee Soon residents for keeping faith with them, saying: "Be assured that your faith will never be displaced. We are here with you. We have always believed in progress with compassion."

The PAP slate had promised more town revitalisation, with at least 15 projects in the pipeline, including a new polyclinic and a community farm.

Early in the campaign, Mr Shanmugam and the PSP team had tangled online over accusations that the PSP had offered to trade Nee Soon for another constituency in a deal with the Reform Party, which the PSP denied ever happened.

Nee Soon GRC has an electorate of 147,047. It was created in 2011 and has since been held by a PAP team helmed by Mr Shanmugam, which won 66.8 per cent of the vote in the 2015 election against the Workers' Party. In 2011, it claimed 58.4 per cent of the votes, also against a WP team.

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