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Writethru: Singapore's ruling party PAP wins general election with a landslide victory

Xinhua, September 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Singapore's ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won 83 of the 89 parliamentary seats in general election on Saturday with a landslide victory, while the opposition Workers' Party (WP) retained 6 seats, according to the Elections Department (ELD).

PAP won the election with 69.86 percent of votes, the highest since 2001's landslide victory of 75.3 percent. Singapore's Prime Minister, also PAP's Secretary-General Lee Hsien Loong said this is "a good result for PAP" when he addressed the reporters.

The seats the PAP won were from 15 group representation constituencies (GRCs) and 12 single member constituencies (SMCs), including the regained Punggol East SMC from the opposition Workers' Party, and East Coast GRC in which close fight were anticipated. While WP retained Hougang SMC and Aljunied GRC by slim margin.

Singaporeans got an early indication of the final results with the public release of the sample count results by ELD for the first time. And the final results rolled in, confirming the initial picture painted by the sample count results of a national swing in votes towards the PAP.

PM Lee Hsien Loong and his team won Ang Mo Kio GRC with 78.6 percent of the vote. He thanked supporters in Malay, Mandarin, English, saying that "We are very humbled."

PAP has won back the Punggol East SMC in a close contest that saw veteran Charles Chong edge out incumbent Lee Li Lian. Charles Chong received 51.76 percent of the vote.

PAP also won a resounding victory in Tanjong Pagar GRC, the constituency of Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew before, with 77.7 percent of the votes.

However, the anticipated close fight in East Coast GRC, Marine Parade GRC, Holland-Bukit Timahand GMC and Fengshan SMC did not materialize. PAP beat WP in these constituencies.

The opposition Workers' Party defended its stronghold of Hougang SMC, with Png Eng Huat retaining his seat with 57.69 percent of the vote.

WP defended Aljunied GRC, in which votes were recounted, with a strong team led by its Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang to Aljunied GRC, but WP only won with 51 percent of the votes.

PAP was challenged in all available 89 parliamentary seats for the first time in the island-nation's history. The 89 seats were split into 16 group representation constituencies(GRCs), where the candidates from a contesting party is required to be fielded as a team, and 13 single member constituencies (SMCs).

The ruling People's Action Party took 81 of the 87 seats in last general election in 2011 with 60.14 percent of the popular votes, which is lower than the 66.6 percent in general election 2006. Endi