SINGAPORE – Mr Murali Pillai, who won the Bukit Batok by-election on Saturday (May 7), was sworn in as a Member of Parliament (MP) on Monday afternoon.
The 48-year-old lawyer had helped the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) retain the single-seat ward, garnering 61.2 per cent of the vote in a straight contest against Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan.
He joins the PAP’s other 82 MPs in Parliament. The remaining six seats are occupied by the Workers’ Party.
“I hope to learn quickly from fellow PAP MPs and I want to start contributing actively,” Mr Murali had told reporters on Sunday after going around Bukit Batok to thank residents for their support.
Adding that he had a full schedule of plans to implement and was “raring to go”, he was scheduled to hold his first Meet-the-People session at the PAP’s Bukit Batok branch on Monday night.
Mr Murali is the first PAP candidate to win a by-election in a single seat in over three decades. His vote share, however, was almost 12 percentage points lower than that won by former MP David Ong at the 2015 General Election.
The by-election had been triggered by Mr Ong’s sudden resignation in March over an alleged extra-marital affair.
The Straits Times, AsiaOne
This article was first published on May 9, 2016.
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