SINGAPORE -The People's Action Party (PAP) has retained Tampines GRC, scoring 66.41 per cent of the votes against the National Solidarity Party (NSP).
This is lower than its score in 2015, when it won 72.1 per cent.
In 2011, it took 57.22 per cent of the vote.
This round, the NSP won 33.59 per cent of the votes.
This election, the PAP team did battle without its former anchor minister, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, at the helm. Mr Heng, who is also the Finance Minister, left to strengthen the slate at the adjacent East Coast GRC, facing the Workers' Party.
The five-member PAP team is led by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli, 57. The others on it are Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Culture, Community and Youth Baey Yam Keng, 49; Mr Desmond Choo, 42; Ms Cheng Li Hui, 44; and Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon, 48, who was previously in Ang Mo Kio GRC .
The NSP slate for Tampines includes party president Reno Fong Chin Leong, 51, Mr Eugene Yeo Ren Yuan, 43, and Mr Choong Hon Heng, 44. This is the second Tampines GRC outing for Mr Fong and Mr Choong , while Mr Eugene had competed in Sembawang GRC previously.
They were joined by two new faces: senior manager Mohamad Ridzwan, 58, and broker and recruiter Vincent Ng, 48.
The GRC expanded slightly this GE by taking in parts of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, and now boasts some 151,708 registered voters - up from 143,518.
The PAP team there had largely campaigned on national issues, focusing on jobs amid the Covid-19 storm. For instance, Mr Masagos pledged that Dr Koh, who is deputy secretary general of the labour movement, will work with unions to preserve workers' job security.
NSP had put forward 14 proposals, including constituency-specific issues such the building of more amenities for the disabled and the elderly.
On the national front, it called for the abolition of the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (Ceca) if it is found to disadvantage local PMETs; and lower HDB flat prices.
Speaking to the media, Mr Fong addressed the higher vote share that his party had received in this election, commenting that the ruling PAP party "has not done as well as it should have over the last five years".
He added: "Of course, we are not happy about the result but we respect the will of the voters, and we, of course, thank those who have voted for us."
The use of new media to conduct the election did not help, he said, adding that the NSP still prefers the traditional rallies which are "closer to ground".
Speaking to the media after the results were out, Mr Masagos said that the team is "not done building Tampines yet".
In response to a question on the decease in its vote share this year and whether DPM Heng's move to East Coast was a factor, Mr Masagos said: "We will analyse the impact that this general election has been to Tampines particularly, but more importantly 2015 was an extraordinary year."
Correction note: This article has been edited to reflect the correct designation of Mr Koh Poh Koon, which is Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry. We are sorry for the error.
