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Set to cast your vote on July 10 but still scratching your head when it comes to Parliamentary terms such as “simple majority” and “supermajority”?

For the more sports-inclined, the Workers’ Party’s (WP) Leon Perera has just the analogy to break it down for you.

Allowing one political party to have a supermajority in Parliament is tantamount to giving a football club control of the English Premier League, Perera explained in a Facebook post today (July 6).

A supermajority refers to a situation in which one party holds more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, while a simple majority is when one party holds more than half of the seats in Parliament.

The People’s Action Party won 83 out of 89 seats up for election in 2015, achieving a 93 per cent supermajority.

With a simple majority, a party can amend and pass laws unilaterally. However, these laws will still be subject to the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore.

With a supermajority, the party has the power to amend the Constitution unilaterally.

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This general election, the Reform Party (RP) is fielding its biggest contingent in Ang Mo Kio GRC, directly taking on an incumbent People’s Action Party (PAP) team helmed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong himself. 

But you would not have known that from their Constituency Political Broadcast last Friday (July 3), when only two of the five-member team appeared on camera to speak. 

RP’s Charles Yeo and Noraini Yunus were the only ones in the studio to fill up the allocated 15 minutes of airtime. Being in the hot seat seemed to have put Yeo in particular on the spot, doing his best to deliver the speech in both English and Mandarin. It turned him into an overnight meme. 

The three other running mates were plainly absent. RP chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam was serving a stay-home notice following his return from the UK, while Darren Soh — who was supposed to deliver the Mandarin message — had fallen ill before the recording. 

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Having participated in a total of nine general elections since the 80s, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has personally witnessed many of Singapore’s changes over the decades.

In a Facebook Live session for Ang Mo Kio GRC on Monday (July 6) night, he was asked how campaigning today is different from the past.

“In 1984, when I first came in, there was no internet,” he said. “It was something that existed in the world but it wasn’t something everyone had access to.”

Things moved at a slower pace because there were no social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, he explained.

“You meet people, you talk to them and then word would spread through the coffeeshop and slowly it would get out.”

It was a kind of politics that was very personal, PM Lee noted.

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Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam and his People’s Action Party (PAP) colleague Jessica Tan went on Facebook Live on July 6 and shared how the government has protected women and other vulnerable groups against sexual and domestic violence on an episode of Straight Talk with PAP.

During a discussion about the culture of victim-blaming and how women are often told that they were courting trouble based on how they dressed, Tan revealed that she had brushes with sexual assault before. She did not elaborate on specific details other than clarifying that she was “absolutely not dressed provocatively”.

[WATCH] Join Minister K. Shanmugam, together with Ms Jessica Tan and President of the Singapore Council of Women’s…

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Singapore did not collapse when it lost two full ministers and a senior minister of state in 2011, said Workers’ Party (WP) candidate for Marine Parade GRC Yee Jenn Jong in a Facebook post on Monday (July 6).

He was referring to three of the PAP candidates in Aljunied GRC the year it fell to the WP, namely, then Foreign Minister George Yeo, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Hwee Hua and Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zainul Abidin Rasheed.

Mr Yee added that many countries also have different parties represented in Parliament, citing New Zealand as an example of a minority government that has handled the Covid-19 crisis “far better” than Singapore has.

He also said investments are healthy even in developed countries without a single party with a supermajority.

“The PAP will already have their majority in the 14th Parliament for sure after this general election, which is hurried in the middle of a pandemic to their enormous advantage,” he added. “Vote fearlessly.”

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Progress Singapore Party (PSP) chief Tan Cheng Bock may have been shot down by founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew but he’s still standing his ground and touting his “Singaporeans first” approach.

Dr Tan, who was formerly a member of the People’s Action Party (PAP) and served as MP for Ayer Rajah SMC from 1980 to 2006, reminisced his days in Parliament during a PSP e-rally on July 6, recalling what he described as a “difficult period”.

He had first floated the “Singaporeans first” idea in 1999 in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but it was not well-received.

“I insisted that we should think Singaporeans first when getting jobs. We were in that state, when the professionals and the PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) were all losing their jobs to foreigners,” Dr Tan said.

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In AsiaOne’s latest E-Junkies episode, we tested Baey Yam Keng on some Gen Z lingo and learnt some interesting fun facts – he taught Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong how to take selfies!

But it looks like there’s more to know about Baey.

The Tampines GRC candidate uploaded a video to his Facebook page just today (July 6), which showed him playing a game of This or That, in between house visits.

This or That? I have no more secrets left. 🙂

In between my house visits.

PAP Tampines North
#GE2020 #ourlivesourjobsourfuture #TampinesTogether #paptampinesnorth #thisorthat

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Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chairman Paul Tambyah has described as inappropriate the use of the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) over comments he made regarding the Covid-19 situation in foreign worker dormitories.

The Pofma Office had issued five correction notices in total to The Online Citizen Asia, New Naratif, Channel News Asia (CNA) and National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) over comments Professor Tambyah made on July 3 at an NUSS forum.

CNA and NUSS have complied with the correction direction.

Speaking to reporters during a walkabout on Monday (July 6), the 55-year-old, who is contesting Bukit Panjang SMC, described the development as “complete distraction”.

“What I said was from a circular from MOM (Ministry of Manpower),” said Prof Tambyah, referring to an e-mail advisory sent to employers.

“It was sent out by MOM. It was not sent out by MOM and MOH (Ministry of Health).”

He added that the advisory was signed only by an MOM official and not anybody from MOH.

“Frankly, that seems to me an inappropriate use of Pofma.”

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Others may have laughed at their efforts, but the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) is not giving up the fight.

In a constituency political broadcast on Monday (July 6), the SDA team contesting in Pasir Ris-Punggol told viewers why they’re digging their heels in the ward.

When asked why the party didn’t give up since they kept losing, Harminder Pal Singh said: “We have walked the ground in Pasir Ris-Punggol for 13 years. We feel the pain of the bad policies.”

Some examples he cited include a young university graduate who’s working as a supermarket cashier, a father who has lost his job, as well as an elderly woman who collects cardboard for a living.

“These are the people we are fighting for. How can we give up?” Singh said.

His party proposed returning CPF in full to Singaporeans once they hit the retirement age, using an extra one per cent of the GDP to help poor families, tighten controls on immigration and enact fair labour policies, as well as putting a stop on irresponsible spending on government projects.

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