GE2025: PM Wong’s PAP team retains Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC with 73.46% of the votes

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SINGAPORE - Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has led his PAP team in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC to a win against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) with 73.46 per cent of the votes, in his first election as prime minister.

This marked an improvement from 2020, when his PAP team defeated the SDP with 63.18 per cent of the votes, and from 2015, when the PAP won by 68.73 per cent.

In his acceptance speech at Yio Chu Kang Stadium, PM Wong, 52, thanked the voters of the constituency for “the strong mandate” that they had given him and his team.

“This is my first election as prime minister and secretary-general of the PAP. So it has been a very humbling experience working with all of you, interacting and engaging with all of you.”

He added: “We will honour the trust that you have given to us by working even harder for all of you.”

The PAP’s Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC slate remains unchanged from 2020 and also includes Senior Minister of State for Defence and Manpower Zaqy Mohamad, 50; North West District Mayor Alex Yam, 43; and Ms Hany Soh, 37.

Their SDP opponents were party organising secretary Jufri Salim, 41; theatre director Alec Tok, 60; founder of alternative media site Wake Up Singapore Ariffin Sha, 27; and Dr Gigene Wong, 59, a former businesswoman.

They garnered 26.54 per cent of the votes.

PM Wong also fared better than his predecessor, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his first general election as prime minister, with the PAP winning 65.57 per cent of the overall vote share in the 2025 General Election.

In SM Lee’s first election as prime minister in 2006, the Ang Mo Kio GRC team anchored by him beat the WP with 66.1 per cent of the votes, slightly below the PAP’s national average of 66.6 per cent.

PM Wong’s margin of victory in his GRC is comparable to that of Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong’s maiden election as prime minister in 1991: Mr Goh’s Marine Parade GRC swept 77.3 per cent of the votes against the now defunct Singapore Justice Party, well above the PAP’s national average of 61.0 per cent.

Mr Abdul Samad, a PAP supporter from Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, was all smiles at Yio Chu Kang Stadium on May 3.

“I had no doubt that he will win,” said the 52-year-old, referring to PM Wong.

“When I saw other (PAP candidates) also win, to me that sends a strong signal that we are in safe hands for the next five years.”

Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC was formed in 2015 from parts of Chua Chu Kang GRC and Sembawang GRC that had seen significant population growth.

It is one of nine constituencies whose boundaries were kept intact by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee in its March 11 report. It now has 119,559 voters, up from 117,077 in 2020. 

PM Wong and Mr Yam have represented Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC since its formation. The PAP and SDP have had straight fights in the constituency for three consecutive general elections since 2015.

In GE2025,

Mr Ariffin of the SDP

said some people had called his team the “suicide squad” for contesting in PM Wong’s constituency.

Cost-of-living concerns took centre stage during the election. Most opposition parties, including the SDP, criticised the Government’s decision to raise the goods and services tax (GST) from 7 per cent to 9 per cent despite inflationary pressures. 

The SDP’s manifesto called for the GST to be reduced back to 7 per cent, and its chief Chee Soon Juan said that the tax on luxury goods could be raised to 13 per cent or 14 per cent. 

In response to criticisms over the GST hike, PM Wong said

at the Fullerton rally on April 28

that foreigners, tourists and higher-income families pay the entire GST of 9 per cent, while permanent GST vouchers ensure that lower- and middle-income Singaporeans pay less than the headline GST rate. 

In the middle of the hustings, the SDP’s Dr Wong drew the ire of netizens for

using a racial slur

to refer to Mr Ariffin, her Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC teammate. 

At a rally the next day, Dr Chee and Dr Wong

apologised to Singaporeans and Mr Ariffin

for the faux pas. She said she did not know that the term she used was disrespectful and harmful, but that was no excuse for her actions. 

Speaking to The Straits Times at the SDP’s assembly ground at MOE (Evans) Stadium after the sample count was released on May 3, SDP chairman Paul Tambyah said he believed that the incident had not significantly affected the party’s vote share in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.

He noted that the SDP team in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC was led by Mr Jufri, a first-time candidate, and had comprised relatively new candidates. He added that the party had performed as expected in the constituency.

Professor Tambyah added that the party had taken swift disciplinary action against Dr Wong, such as by issuing her a stern warning and restricting her public speaking engagements following the incident.

Speaking to the media at the stadium, Mr Ariffin encouraged young people to never give up on their dreams and to keep striving.