70% share of vote not the baseline for PAP in next GE

SINGAPORE — The People’s Action Party’s vote share of nearly 70 per cent in the September General Election is not the baseline for the next election, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Every election is different and the ruling party has to work hard to maintain and consolidate the support of voters, he said in a recent interview with The Australian newspaper conducted at the Istana.

“By the next election, you’re talking about another 100,000 new voters or 150,000, maybe, and a corresponding number, nearly, who will have passed on or (will) no longer be voting this time. So, each election is different,” he said. “I do not work on the basis that this is the baseline for the next election.” He said the PAP did not expect the vote share it received, although it had worked hard and knew “the mood was good”.

Mr Lee attributed the election result to a range of factors. “One, the realisation after my father (Lee Kuan Yew) died, that this (Singapore’s success) did not happen by chance and we have a lot to be thankful for,” he said. Another was the feel-good factor from Singapore’s Golden Jubilee. A third reason was that PAP Members of Parliament have been working hard and the electorate gave the ruling party credit for trying, said Mr Lee. In the 2011 GE, the PAP’s vote share was 60.1 per cent.