By Bertha Henson and Zuraidah Ibrahim
SINGAPOREANS will be casting their votes in 15 four-member Group Representation Constituencies and 21 single-member wards at the next general election.
Of the 15 GRCs (two up from the present 13):
* THREE have been created by grouping single-member wards. They will be known as Ang Mo Kio, Kampong Glam and Thomson GRCs.
* THREE have been left intact, namely, Eunos, Hong Kah and Tampines GRCs.
* ONE is the result of merging two GRCs -- Brickworks and Pasir Panjang. It will take on the name Brickworks GRC.
* EIGHT have been expanded to include one or two single-member wards. The GRCs are Aljunied, Bedok, Cheng San, Jalan Besar, Marine Parade, Sembawang, Tiong Bahru and Toa Payoh. Their names remain the same, except for Tiong Bahru, which has been renamed Tanjong Pagar.
With the expansion of these eight GRCs, 11 single-member wards, namely Fengshan, Paya Lebar, Siglap, Punggol, Kallang, Whampoa, MacPherson, Bukit Panjang, Tanjong Pagar, Telok Blangah and Kim Keat have disappeared.
And yes, sole Opposition MP Chiam See Tong's query in Parliament has been answered: his Potong Pasir ward remains a single-member constituency.
The number of MPs in the House, however, remains the same: 81.
These recommendations by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, which were presented to Parliament on Thursday as a White Paper, have been accepted by the Government.
A copy of the report was released to each MP at the same time.
Changes
The changes mean that the five-member committee, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Wong Chooi Sen, has created the maximum number of GRCs while retaining the rest as single-member wards.
Under recent changes to the Parliamentary Elections Act, not more than three-quarters of the total number of seats in Parliament should come from GRCs. The law was also changed to increase the number of MPs returned in a GRC from three to four.
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong has said that if a GRC was allowed to have four instead of three MPs, it would not have to be broken up when its population grows too rapidly.
With 15 four-member GRCs, the total number of GRC MPs is 60, which is the maximum number allowed.
According to the committee's report, the changes have come about by grouping single-member wards into GRCs, such as merging Teck Ghee, Ang Mo Kio, Yio Chu Kang and Kebun Baru into one GRC -- Ang Mo Kio GRC.
Or, absorbing these wards into the present GRCs as it did in the case of Fengshan and Siglap which now come under Bedok GRC.
With jumbo constituencies, the number of voters in a GRC has increased. The figures range from 63,801 in Toa Payoh to 121,964 in Sembawang.
Unlike the review before the 1988 general election, when constituencies were scrapped altogether or carved up into parts and re-named, the electoral boundaries have been left intact.
All the Singaporean has to do, really, is to note if his present ward has been merged into a GRC, or left alone.
The committee, set up in March, has placed the number of voters at 1,722,630 as in July this year. This is 40,860 more than the number of voters on the 1990 Registers of Electors.
The changes will have a number of implications for the next general election which the Prime Minister has said would be held "way before 1993".
Because of the four-to-a-GRC rule, some of the current MPs in enlarged GRCs will have to move to other constituencies if they want to contest the next general election.
Bedok, for example, now includes Fengshan and Siglap, making a total of five MPs. The same applies to Jalan Besar, which has Kallang and Whampoa in its fold.
And as a GRC requires at least one minority candidate on its team, some of the Chinese MPs will have to move to other constituencies to comply with this law.
A case in point is Kampong Glam, formed by the merger of Kampong Glam, Cairnhill, Moulmein and Kim Seng, all of which are now served by Chinese MPs.
Several People's Action Party MPs affected by these changes said that it would be up to the party leadership to decide which MPs would be switched around, although they themselves would prefer to remain in the constituencies they had been serving.
They generally welcomed the creation of mega-constituencies, saying that a bigger area would be better served by town councils, as they would enjoy greater economies of scale.
But Opposition MP Chiam See Tong said that there would have to be drastic changes in the town council set-up, as some wards now served by certain town councils would have to come under the jurisdiction of another town council with the mergers.
1. Ayer Rajah
2. Boon Lay
3. Braddell Heights
4. Bukit Batok
5. Bukit Merah
6. Bukit Gombak
7. Bukit Timah
8. Buona Vista
9. Changi
10. Chua Chu Kang
11. Hougang
12. Jurong
13. Kreta Ayer
14. Leng Kee
15. Mountbatten
16. Nee Soon Central
17. Nee Soon South
18. Potong Pasir
19. Tanglin
20. Ulu Pandan
21. YuhuaThe above article was first published in The Straits Times, Oct 10, 1991.
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
