General elections were held in Singapore on 3 November 2001. President S.R. Nathan dissolved parliament on 18 October 2001 on the advice of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won 82 of the 84 elected seats in Parliament in a landslide victory. Due to the large number (55) of uncontested seats, only 675,306 of the 2,036,923 eligible voters (33%) had an opportunity to vote. As of the recent election in 2020, this was the most recent, and fourth overall (third consecutive) election PAP returned to power on nomination day with a majority of uncontested walkovers.
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All 84 directly elected seats in Parliament (and up to 3 NCMPs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 2,036,923[a] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 94.61% ( 1.30pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results by constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This election marked the first time that total eligible voter population exceeded the 2 million mark.
Background
editThe ruling PAP's secretary-general and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong initially scheduled for the election to be held in 2002, but pushed to November after Singapore faced an economic crisis due to the events of September 11 attacks in the United States.
For the first time since 1963, a formal political umbrella emerged from within the opposition. The four-party Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), which consist of the leader party Singapore People's Party (SPP), the National Solidarity Party (NSP), Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura (PKMS) and Singapore Justice Party (SJP), was led by Chiam See Tong. SDA fielded the most candidates in the election, where NSP provided the bulk of nine candidates, SPP with four, and PKMS providing a required minority candidate.
Former Workers' Party (WP) Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, who lost his seat after being declared a bankrupt owing to lawsuits by PAP leaders, resigned from the party, citing disagreements with the present leadership. The only WP Member of Parliament, Low Thia Khiang took over as secretary-general. During nomination day, WP was nominated on only two wards (Hougang and Nee Soon East SMC), as their sole GRC team who attempt to nominate in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency was disqualified for filing incomplete papers.
A seat had been vacated in 1999 after the conviction of Jalan Besar GRC's MP Choo Wee Khiang over commercial crimes, but no by-election was held as the seat was within a GRC. Under the law, an entire electoral constituency (for both single member and GRC seats) has to be vacated before a by-election could be called, as this was done during the Marine Parade GRC by-election of 1992.
Campaign
editThis election saw its shortest campaigning period of 17 days after opening of the register of electors, as well as the absence of four-member GRCs from the electoral map (four-member GRCs would reappear again in the 2011 elections, in nearly a decade later). Another increase of the election deposit amount this time was the most significant one in history, which almost doubled.
Timeline
edit| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 17 October | Publication of Electoral Boundaries report |
| 17 October | Certification of Registers of Electors |
| 18 October | Dissolution of 9th Parliament; Writ of Election issued |
| 25 October | Nomination Day |
| 26 October-2 November | Campaigning Period |
| 3 November | Polling Day |
| 25 March 2002 | Opening of 10th Parliament |
Electoral boundaries
edit| Constituency | Changes |
|---|---|
| Aljunied GRC | Absorbed the southern Punggol divisions from Cheng San GRC, and Lorong Halus area/Paya Lebar Air Base from Pasir Ris GRC Kampong Kembangan division was split into Aljunied-Kembangan and Kembangan-Punggol divisions (the latter absorbed with Punggol East from Cheng San GRC), while Punggol South division was renamed to Aljunied–Hougang Carved out Changi-Simei division to East Coast GRC and Aljunied division to Marine Parade GRC |
| Ang Mo Kio GRC | Ward upsized to six members Absorbed Cheng San and Jalan Kayu divisions from Cheng San GRC Ang Mo Kio division was absorbed into Yio Chu Kang and Teck Ghee divisions |
| Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC | No Change in Boundaries |
| East Coast GRC | Absorbed Changi-Simei division from Aljunied GRC Carved out Joo Chiat division into SMC |
| Holland–Bukit Panjang GRC | New Constituency Formed with Ulu Pandan, Bukit Panjang and Buona Vista divisions from Bukit Timah GRC, Sembawang GRC and Tanjong Pagar GRC, respectively Bukit Panjang divisions was split to include Cashew and Zhenghua divisions, while some of Zhenghua division was split from Tanglin division |
| Hong Kah GRC | Absorbed Bukit Gombak SMC, and a portion of Chua Chu Kang SMC (to form Keat Hong division) Carved out Hong Kah East division to Jurong GRC Hong Kah West was merged into Nanyang division |
| Jalan Besar GRC | Ward upsized to five members Absorbed Kampong Glam SMC, Kreta Ayer and Kim Seng divisions (which would merge into Kreta Ayer–Kim Seng division) from Kreta Ayer–Tanglin GRC Geylang West division was absorbed into Kolam Ayer and Jalan Besar divisions |
| Jurong GRC | New Constituency Formed from a majority of Bukit Timah GRC (except for Bukit Timah division, which carved into SMC), and Hong Kah East division from Hong Kah GRC Jurong division was split into Pioneer and Taman Jurong divisions, while Bukit Batok East division was formed from portions of Bukit Batok, Bukit Gombak & Bukit Timah divisions |
| Marine Parade GRC | No Change in Boundaries |
| Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC | New Constituency Formed from Pasir Ris GRC (except for the Pasir Ris South division, which was absorbed into Tampines GRC) and northern Punggol divisions of Cheng San GRC (Punggol Central, North and South) |
| Sembawang GRC | Carved out Nee Soon East division into SMC, and Bukit Panjang division into Holland–Bukit Panjang GRC Sembawang and Woodlands division were split to include Canberra and Admiralty divisions respectively |
| Tampines GRC | Ward upsized to five members Absorbed Pasir Ris South division from Pasir Ris GRC (renamed to Tampines North) |
| Tanjong Pagar GRC | Absorbed Moulmein and Tanglin (renamed to Tanglin-Cairnhill) divisions from Kreta Ayer–Tanglin GRC Carved out Buona Vista division to Holland–Bukit Panjang GRC Leng Kee division was absorbed into Queenstown, Radin Mas and Tanglin-Cairnhill divisions |
| West Coast GRC | Ward upsized to five members Absorbed Boon Lay SMC and some of Bukit Timah GRC (Jurong, Joo Koon, Gul Circle and Tuas) Pasir Panjang division was dissolved into Telok Blangah and West Coast divisions |
Outgoing/New MPs
editThere were a total of 40 (25 PAP) candidates making their political debut in the 2001 election. Notable figures were Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Halimah Yacob, both of which would later go on to become Presidents of Singapore. 24 incumbent MPs retired prior to the announcements. 15 candidates outside PAP were also new, among which new faces include Chee Siok Chin, sister of the SDP's leader Chee Soon Juan, as well as Desmond Lim, who would later lead the newly formed SDA in future years, and a future Perennial candidate Ooi Boon Ewe.
| New PAP candidates | Outgoing MPs | New opposition candidates |
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- ^ Richard Hu initially announced that he would seek another term in leading a team for the new Holland–Bukit Panjang GRC, but the idea was scrapped.
Results
editPAP won a landslide victory and its best result since 1980, achieving its third highest score among the general elections it has contested since 1959. The PAP's vote percentage of 75.3% signalled an overwhelming endorsement of the PAP to lead the nation out of the crisis that came at a time of great uncertainty over world security and the recession that came after the September 11 attacks.
Both opposition-held wards were successfully retained but saw their winning margins reduced. With these two opposition wins, one NCMP seat was offered to and accepted by Steve Chia of Singapore Democratic Alliance, who became the youngest and first-ever non-WP NCMP. It would be the last election until 2020 where NCMP seats would not be given to WP.
Two candidates, Tan Kim Chuang and Tan Lead Shake, had each forfeited their $9,000 election deposit, the latter being a straight contest where Tan Cheng Bock won the best performing election result at 87.96% in Ayer Rajah Constituency; This is the last election to date where there was a forfeiture of election deposit outside multi-cornered contests.
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| Party | Votes | % | /– | Seats | /– | |
| People's Action Party | 470,765 | 75.29 | 10.31 | 82 | 1 | |
| Singapore Democratic Alliance | 75,248 | 12.03 | 2.95 | 1 | 0 | |
| Singapore Democratic Party | 50,607 | 8.09 | –2.53 | 0 | 0 | |
| Workers' Party | 19,060 | 3.05 | –11.12 | 1 | 0 | |
| Democratic Progressive Party | 5,334 | 0.85 | 0.15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independents | 4,253 | 0.68 | 0.23 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 625,267 | 100.00 | – | 84 | 1 | |
| Valid votes | 625,267 | 97.87 | ||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 13,636 | 2.13 | ||||
| Total votes | 638,903 | 100.00 | ||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,036,923 | 94.61 | ||||
| Source: Singapore Elections[usurped][a] | ||||||
By constituency
editAftermath
editChee Soon Juan incident
editSingapore Democratic Party (SDP) leader Chee Soon Juan came under fire in the media when he encountered Prime Minister Goh while campaigning at a hawker centre. He used a megaphone to ask Goh, "Where is the $18 billion that you have lent to (then-Indonesian President) Suharto?". Goh and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew sued Chee for defamation shortly after the election.
Chee lost the lawsuits and was ordered to pay damages of S$300,000 to Goh and S$200,000 to Lee. Ahead of the 2006 elections, Chee was declared bankrupt on 10 February, making him ineligible from standing in elections. Chee would return again in the 2015 elections after being discharged from bankruptcy on 23 November 2012.
Notes
editReferences
edit- "Hsien Loong: Election soon". (8 November 2005). New Straits Times, p. 31.