News Analysis: Singapore ruling party's dominance challenged in hotly-contested general election

After experiencing 65 rallies and "Cooling-off Day", Singaporeans head to the designated polling stations on Friday to cast their ballots in a general election.

The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) are challenged on all 89 parliamentary seats for the first time since Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965. This is also the first general election without the participation of Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away in March this year.

Over 2.46 million eligible voters have been indicated, 4.7 percent higher than that of the 2011 election. For the first time in history, voters born after Singapore's independence in 1965 outnumbered those born before. These younger voters, who demand for a diversity in parliament, are expected to play an important role in the final result of this year's election.

According a survey conducted by Lianhe Zaobao earlier, high cost of living, housing prices, public transportation and medical care are top issues which voters concern most in the election.

In addition, Koh Chin Yee, CEO of Longus Research Institute, mentioned that issues like "whether the opposition party will form the government" were also heatedly discussed during the election campaign as Polling Day was approaching.

Singapore's Prime Minister, also PAP's Secretary-General Lee Hsien Loong reiterated the importance of this general election and called on voters to cast their ballots to the party that will surely reward them with good policies and consider the future of Singapore.

Meanwhile, the opposition Workers' Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang considers the number of parliamentary seats for the opposition as the key issue. Low asked voters to support WP candidates to strengthen the party's effectiveness in Parliament.

From a historical perspective, PAP holds a relatively solid foundation in constituencies in the west, while the opposition WP gains more support for the voters in the east, said Koh Chin Yee. However, the total number of constituencies in the east accounts for only a small proportion in all constituencies. Even if the opposition won all the above mentioned constituencies, the opposition still cannot form a government.

Koh also noticed that the ruling party often reminded the voters to be cautious about the phenomenon called "freak election", in which lots of voters believe that others will vote for the ruling party and then choose to vote for the opposition for more check and balance. If too many people hold this kind of view, the situation might change.

Navnita Sarma, Asia Editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit ( EIU), believed that the PAP will retain its parliamentary dominance in the general election, although the patriotic fervor that the party seems to be relying on is not likely to boost its vote share by much. Even though the main opposition parties have fielded strong candidates in some constituencies and there are more parties contesting the election, EIU expected opposition representation in parliament to increase only marginally.

No ballot papers will be issued after polling closes at 8 p.m.( 1200 GMT). According to the Election Department, voters will get a hint on the results at around 10 p.m.(1400 GMT) when the authority releases the result of a sample count. Endi