NSP 'disappointed' with electoral boundaries report

SINGAPORE — The National Solidarity Party (NSP) today (July 25) said it was disappointed with the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee’s (ERBC) report released yesterday, arguing for clearer guidelines to any change in electoral boundaries.

In a media statement, Acting Secretary-General Hazel Poa said that the ERBC report gave no explanation to why it was necessary for Moulmein-Kallang GRC, helmed by Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew, to be divided up, nor for the dissolution of Joo Chiat SMC and Whampoa SMC, as well as the range of electors per MP used by the ERBC to determine the boundaries.

She also took issue with EBRC taking instructions from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, saying that it is a “clear conflict of interest, no different from the conflicts of interest found in the management of AHPETC and the Auditor-General’s report on the various Ministries and Statutory Boards”.

“It is not difficult to set clear, fair and defensible guidelines on the issues mentioned above, and have boundaries that could only be changed if those guidelines are breached,” Ms Poa argued.

The five-member ERBC submitted its report to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday, eight days after he announced in Parliament that it had been formed two months ago. Political analysts have labelled the report to be more evolutionary than radical.

The committee was chaired by Mr Tan Kee Yong, Secretary to the Prime Minister. Its members are Housing and Development Board chief executive Cheong Koon Hean, Singapore Land Authority CEO Tan Boon Khai, Elections Department head Lee Seng Lup, and Ms Wong Wee Kim, who is the Chief Statistician at the Department of Statistics.

PM Lee had asked the committee to reduce the average size of the GRCS to fewer than five members. It was also to consider the population shifts and housing developments since the last boundary delineation exercise, and maintain the minimum number of Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) at 12.