Breaking news: Electoral boundaries redrawn
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Breaking news: Electoral boundaries redrawn
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Singapore Democrats
Is the PAP calling for snap elections soon? It sure seems that way. The Elections Department has been a little more than active in the past few months, first training civil servants as election officials, then updating the register of voters and the latest news: announcing the redrawing of the constituencies today at 5 pm.
Of the three activities, the gazetting of the constituency boundaries is the most significant. This is because the PAP has the habit of announcing the new boundaries at the last minute - the time span ranging anywhere from a couple of months to just the day before it dissolves Parliament. This, of course, ensures that the opposition has as little time as possible to work the ground.If the PAP does go for a super-duper early election, it will be an indication that it is unsure of how to handle the country's economic future and needs to quickly get the general elections out of the way before things slump deeper.
With the disastrous adventures of the GIC and Temasek that have blown a gaping hole in our reserves and the ill-advised foray into the murky world of tax secrecy jurisdictions where hundreds of billions of dollars could be made -- and lost -- in a matter of months, Singapore's future has never looked more uncertain.
But calling for early elections would signal one thing that should worry Singaporeans a lot. It shows a Government on an unsure footing and needing to resort to opportunistic holding of elections to continue its grip on power instead of one confidently going to the people to ask for a genuine mandate to tackle the country's problems head-on.
But, of course, the PAP has always been about power first and everything else second. -
Actually can more or less expect cos lately the MPs have been doing a lot of walkabouts in their constituencies... Walkabout till kanna burnt in the case of SHT...