Singapore election expected soon as Lee Hsien Loong sets up electoral boundaries panel
- The formation of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee is seen as the first formal step towards a general election
- The time between the release of the panel’s report and polling day has ranged from 17 days to six months
The Electoral Boundaries Review Committee has been directed to recommend the number and boundaries of the country’s single-member and multi-seat constituencies, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s office said on Wednesday. A statement said the committee was in the “midst of its deliberations”.
The committee will take into account population shifts and reduce the average size of multi-seat wards known as group representational constituencies (GRCs). It will also increase the number of single-seat wards (SMCs) beyond the current 13.
The committee has in previous years taken between two and four months to produce its recommendations to the prime minister in a report, which is eventually made public.
In previous elections, the time between the release of the report and polling day has ranged from 17 days to six months.
In 2015, the committee sent its report to the prime minister on July 21, and the general election was held on September 11.
Bilveer Singh, who lectures on political science at the National University of Singapore, said that while the time between the forming of the committee and polling day was usually two to three months, there were exceptions.
One example was when the committee was convened in December 1996. On that occasion polling day was on January 2, 1997.