SINGAPORE — Following nine days of intense hustings, campaigning for the Bukit Batok by-election wrapped up on Thursday (May 5) with a flurry of impassioned speeches by the candidates and party bigwigs.  

The speeches, at rallies held by the People’s Action Party (PAP) and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), represented the final pitches to some 26,000 voters who will head to the ballot box on Saturday — almost two months after former Member of Parliament David Ong’s shock resignation over an alleged extramarital affair.

At the Bukit Gombak Stadium, PAP candidate Murali Pillai sought a “very strong” mandate from the voters and urged them to look at the programmes which the ruling party has put in place for the constituency, as well as the additional initiatives that are in the pipeline should he get elected. Said the 48-year-old lawyer, who has been involved in grassroots work in the ward since 2000: “This is not about myself, this is about you, serving you ... With your mandate, I would personally lead my team of dedicated volunteers whom I have known for 16 years.” He added that Bukit Batok residents need not worry about whether or not he will push hard for their legitimate interests in Parliament. “Politics is not a career for me, it is a cause, I will not be muzzled,” he said. 

Less than 2km away, SDP chief Chee Soon Juan held court for almost an hour in the party’s fourth and final rally at the open field along Bukit Batok Industrial Park A, promising voters that he would dutifully perform his role as an MP and “speak up in Parliament and push the PAP to act in your interest”. He argued that the SDP could match the ruling party in coming up with ideas for the country. “We are a constructive party,” the 53-year-old said. “For years, the PAP tried to brand us as a totally destructive opposition party, opposed to even Singapore. Those were the days before the Internet and social media. It said that we were out to destroy Singapore. That was, of course, propaganda at its worst and most vicious.”

At the PAP’s rally - the party’s second over the campaign period - big guns took to the stage in support of Mr Murali. Second assistant secretary-general Tharman Shanmugaratnam and organising secretary Chan Chun Sing both touched on Mr Murali’s selflessness in service, but also took aim at their opponents.

Mr Tharman, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, lit into policy papers that the SDP had regularly held up as examples of how it would give the PAP a run for its money in the ideas department. He called the SDP’s proposals “populist” and said they sought to spread “fear and alarm”. Using sharp language, he called SDP’s charge that S$800 billion in CPF funds was missing “absolute rubbish”, responded to Dr Chee’s claim that the Government created only 100 jobs last year by calling for a “sense of reality”, and told the opposition candidate that if he did not understand policies, he ought to “go do his homework.”

Mr Chan, who is the labour chief, reiterated the ruling party’s integrity and sincerity in serving residents. “We may not be as good in packaging ourselves. But we are sincere and we will always be with you,” he said. 

Thursday night’s rallies brought the curtains down on the hustings, which begun unofficially right after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced Mr Ong’s resignation on March 12. The SDP held a walkabout in Bukit Batok the next day and by March 21, both the PAP and the SDP had announced their respective candidates. The electoral battle intensified as Nomination Day neared, with both sides trading barbs over upgrading of the mature estate after Mr Murali announced S$1.9 million worth of infrastructural plans for Bukit Batok. The SDP argued that it was “unethical” to say that major improvements would be implemented in the Single-Member Constituency only if the PAP candidate won, adding that it could even amount to a contravention of the Parliamentary Elections Act, which prohibits undue influence on voters.

That charge drew a riposte from the PAP, which described the SDP’s comments as “misconceived” and “absurd”. If a party’s candidate is not elected, its town council “naturally cannot be responsible” for a constituency, and cannot execute its Neighbourhood Renewal Programme plans, the ruling party said.

More exchanges were traded once campaigning was officially under way, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong publicly questioning if Dr Chee was fit to hold office and the SDP taking umbrage at what it termed “character assassination”.

Friday is Cooling-Off Day, and no campaigning is allowed. On Saturday, polling stations in the constituency will open at 8am and close 12 hours later, and the first sample count is expected by 9pm.