By-election defeat for Singapore's ruling party
People's Action Party need to reconnect with 'heartlanders' or risk losing more seats
Singapore's ruling party needs to reconnect with voters or face more severe setbacks in national polls, analysts said yesterday after a massive swing to the opposition in a by-election dominated by debate over the rising cost of living and immigration.
It was the second by-election defeat in eight months for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's People's Action Party (PAP), which has been in power for more than 50 years.
Saturday's vote for a vacant seat in the sleepy suburb of Punggol East became a lightning rod for a national debate over the cost of living, immigration and other issues raging in social media.
The opposition Workers' Party won 54.5 percent of the vote - the same share garnered by the PAP when it last took the seat in the May 2011 general elections.
"The swing of votes has been massive," Reuben Wong, an assistant professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said.
Wong said defeated PAP candidate Koh Poh Koon, 40, a prominent surgeon who had never been in politics and was introduced by the party just weeks before the vote, was seen as an "elitist" figure.
By contrast, he said Workers' Party candidate Lee Li Lian, a 34-year-old corporate trainer running for the second time, was regarded as more representative of Singapore's "heartlanders" - the majority who live in public housing.