GE2025: PAP retains Chua Chu Kang GRC with 63.59% of votes; wins 75.83% of votes in Bukit Gombak SMC

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SINGAPORE - The PAP team led by Manpower Minister Tan See Leng has retained Chua Chu Kang GRC for a fourth consecutive term, winning 63.59 per cent of the valid votes against the PSP on May 3.

The winning margin is higher than the 58.64 per cent of votes it received in the last election in 2020.

Meanwhile, the PAP’s Ms Low Yen Ling secured the neighbouring Bukit Gombak SMC with 75.83 per cent of valid votes against the PSP’s Harish Pillay.

Dr Tan, 60, who was deployed to Chua Chu Kang to replace Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong to lead the PAP team in a surprise move on Nomination Day, will enter his second term as an MP. 

He leads lawyer and second-term MP Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, 44, and PAP newcomers Jeffrey Siow, 46, former permanent secretary at the Trade and Industry and Manpower ministries, and neuroscientist Choo Pei Ling, 38. 

The team defeated a PSP team comprising lawyer Wendy Low, 48, stockbroker S. Nallakaruppan, 60, safety consultant A’bas Kasmani, 71, and former secretary-general of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation Lawrence Pek, 55. 

The PSP team received 36.41 per cent of the votes, down from its results in GE2020.

In 2020, Chua Chu Kang GRC proved to be where the PSP had achieved one of its best results, having received 41.36 per cent of the votes. This is the second time that PSP is contesting the group representation constituency.

After PAP was announced the winner in Chua Chu Kang GRC, Dr Tan assured supporters at Bukit Gombak Stadium that the team will “never abuse this trust” and will not let them down.

Speaking to the media after his speech, he thanked DPM Gan for the “fantastic amount of groundwork that has been made”.

He added: “It’s really a very reassuring win. It’s also a testimony of the residents’ trust in us, and we will never take that for granted.”

Dr Tan, the new anchor minister, spent the campaign racing to introduce himself to residents, who were seen quizzing him about DPM Gan’s sudden redeployment to Punggol GRC. DPM Gan had helmed the PAP team in Chua Chu Kang GRC since 2011.

Dr Tan had earlier pledged to see through existing plans for the GRC, such as new MRT stations to improve the area’s connectivity and some $212 million worth of neighbourhood enhancements under the town council’s five-year plan. 

The PAP team will come up with a 100-day plan to see how concerns raised by residents can be addressed, such as connectivity issues in Tengah, which will be prioritised.

Both teams said during the hustings that residents often flagged cost-of-living woes. 

PSP’s Mr Pek spearheaded the party’s call for a universal minimum wage – a proposal that Dr Tan and Mr Siow rebuffed several times on the hustings, defending measures like the Progressive Wage Model to support low-income workers.  

In Bukit Gombak, the ruling party’s Ms Low won 75.83 per cent of all valid votes, and the PSP’s Mr Pillay, 24.17 per cent. The newly carved out SMC, comprising estates from Bukit Gombak and Hillview, has 26,427 registered voters.

Speaking to supporters at Bukit Gombak Stadium after she was declared the winner, Ms Low said: “I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you, for your time, for your efforts, for your sweat, for your sacrifices, and on some days, for your tears as well. I could not have done this without you.

“I look forward to continuing the journey with you to write the next Bukit Gombak chapter.”

Her campaign focused on her role in various projects in the ward, like the opening of Hume MRT station, which she had lobbied for with residents over the years. She frequently organises community events and outreach programmes for the residents who live in condominiums, which form about two-thirds of the homes in the ward, based on ST’s analysis using Department of Statistics data dated June 2024.

Ms Low, who had been part of the PAP’s Chua Chu Kang GRC team since GE2011, had earlier committed to work with the PAP team in Chua Chu Kang GRC on the $212 million five-year town plan, which includes Bukit Gombak.

Even though Bukit Gombak is now an SMC, she had said earlier that it does not change the fact that it will still be very much part of the big Chua Chu Kang family.

Bukit Gombak will continue to be served by Chua Chu Kang Town Council and share its resources.

PSP’s Mr Pillay, a tech veteran whose past roles include growing software company Red Hat in Singapore, had earlier pointed out that he was among those who called for the software that underpins the TraceTogether system used for contact tracing in the Covid-19 pandemic to be made open to scrutiny to improve trust. The Government had taken up his suggestion to do so, he said.

His proposal included an open software platform that town councils can use for estate management, no matter the party affiliation. He had pledged to help ensure that taxpayers’ money is not wasted during a transition following an election, and that the town council’s administrative products and services would be available from day one.