The quiet before the by-election

SINGAPORE — The candidates in today’s Punggol East by-election — except for Reform Party (RP) chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam, who lodged a complaint about his party’s website being down for the last two hours on Thursday before campaigning restrictions kicked in — took a breather from politics yesterday to spend some down-time with friends and family after what they termed an intense campaign.

But while all appeared quiet on the surface, frenzied activity took place away from the public eye to get everything ready by 8 this morning, when the first of the Single-Member Constituency’s 31,649 voters turn up to cast their votes.

Polling stations were set up and cordoned off, ballot boxes were prepped at the Elections Department, and the various candidates’ election agents were sworn in, among other things.

The most visible Cooling-Off Day activity, however, came from Mr Jeyaretnam. He said his party yesterday reported the website problem via email to the Elections Department.

He said: “We haven’t reached any conclusions and are still investigating why it happened.”

Workers’ Party (WP) candidate Lee Li Lian had dinner with some volunteers and party members at Cheng San Community Club while the People’s Action Party’s Dr Koh Poh Koon, a colorectal surgeon, said he did a ward round in the morning to review the condition of a patient. He spent the evening at home watching a movie together with his children.

Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) candidate Desmond Lim also enjoyed family bliss yesterday: After doing his weekly marketing in the morning, he prepared breakfast for his wife.

In the afternoon, the couple went shopping with their one-year-old son before Mr Lim went home to prepare dinner for the family.

The Writ of Election was issued on Jan 9 by President Tony Tan, on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The snap by-election, which was announced less than a month after former PAP MP Michael Palmer resigned over an extramarital affair, caught some of the Opposition parties off guard, although they had been urging Mr Lee to call the by-election.

There was plenty of drama in the lead-up to Nomination Day as the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) staged a last-minute pull-out after declaring earlier its intention to contest.

The SDP decision came after the WP repeatedly ignored the former’s overtures to negotiate a pact for the by-election. Despite the SDP pull-out, four candidates were successfully nominated to stand in the by-election — paving the way for a historic contest. It is the first four-way fight since 1997.

Early in the campaign, the candidates were cautious and largely focused on their own messages, and the municipal concerns of the Punggol East residents. The first rally — held by the PAP — was staged two days after Nomination Day. But the hustings picked up pace in the last few days of the campaign period, as the parties traded barbs during their rallies and national issues such as cost of living, housing prices and healthcare costs were aired.

The PAP, WP and RP also jostled for the right to hold rallies — there were only two sites available for the by-election. On Thursday, the last day of campaigning, the PAP and RP won the ballot. Speaking to reporters at his Pasir Ris condo, SDA’s Mr Lim said that he slept for a total of less than 10 hours over the past few days. “It has been very intense,” he said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LOUSIA TANG