Coronavirus and Singapore elections: the best of times, or the worst of times?

The crisis has given the People’s Action Party a platform to showcase its mettle ahead of a general election, with social-distancing measures expected to hurt the opposition’s campaign

But should it reap a windfall from this unexpected crisis, the PAP faces the challenge of persuading people that any victory came on its own merit

Reading Time:7 minutes

A couple wearing face masks walks past the Merlion statue in Singapore. Photo: AP

Published: 12:00pm, 21 Mar 2020Updated: 2:55pm, 24 Jun 2020

When Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last week strongly hinted that elections could be held amid the country’s biggest-ever health crisis, Singaporeans were not sure what to make of his statement.

On the one hand, Lee was stating the obvious, as Singapore’s leaders have been echoing health experts who warn that the fight against Covid-19 could take a year or more. This means the pandemic is likely to outlast the current administration’s term, which expires in April 2021.

Whenever it happens, election fever will have to compete with Covid-19 – which had affected some 385 people in Singapore as of Friday. While 131 patients have made a full recovery, two people with underlying health conditions who were in critical condition for days died on Saturday.

What is worrying for the opposition is the possibility the health crisis could send anxious voters into the arms of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), while the restrictions on large gatherings during the outbreak could severely hamper opposition parties’ ability to campaign.

Even before tackling electoral logistics, the opposition is finding itself having to walk a fine line between appearing united with the rest of the country in the fight against Covid-19 and being able to criticise deficiencies in the government’s response.

The latter has been difficult to execute because the battleground plays to the ruling party’s well-honed skills: its forward planning in husbanding resources, efficiency at organising and distributing those resources, and a well-oiled communications strategy girded by a single-minded determination to keep the city state running efficiently.

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