SINGAPORE - The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) will roll out its revamped website next Wednesday (Sept 18) in anticipation of the upcoming general election.

The move was announced at a briefing on Saturday at the SDP Ang Mo Kio office.

It comes as no surprise that opposition parties are shifting into gear with the election anticipated to be months away, particularly after the formation of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee was announced on Sept 4.

SDP vice-chairman John Tan said the new website will feature up-to-date content with the poll in mind.

Mr Tan added: "We want to make sure that our users are happy with it (the new website). Today's technology is that people use their smartphones a lot, people are really impatient. They want it fast, super fast. So we're going to focus on the speed."

Saturday's briefing gave a glimpse of the new website, which is designed to be easier to navigate.

The revamp is also intended to enhance the SDP's efforts in making activities like event management, communications and ground operations more efficient.

The website's content management system "will be a breeze" in helping SDP members compile information, said Mr Tan, noting that in the past, the party had to rely on manual entry.

Now it will be automatic and integrated so SDP members on walkabouts can input survey information easily via their mobile phones.

SDP media management head Benjamin Pwee said "it would be a case for us to be able to do things with speed and efficiency, way more than we could possibly do".

Party volunteers like software engineer Stanley Goh began work on the website revamp in February.

The team of four overhauled the backend technology - server, database and applications - and rebuilt the platform from scratch.

Mr Pwee noted: "We have five constituencies that we're working on. So there's a lot of on-the-ground information we need to capture, make sense of, collate, utilise as quickly as possible. And we will be adding AI (artificial intelligence) predictive functions to make sense of the data as well."

The SDP at the briefing also covered some aspects of a pre-election rally planned for October and the Sept 28 launch of its manifesto The Way Forward, which will have a print run of 3,000 and be in a coffee-table book format.

The launch will be held in conjunction with a fundraiser marking the party's 39th anniversary.