The ruling party’s deployment of its ministers on the electoral map has always been an intentional and deliberate exercise.
In 2015, with the creation of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Prime Minister Wong – then the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth representing West Coast GRC – became the first minister who entered politics in 2011 to leave his original seat and lead a team in another.
In 1997, Mr Teo moved from Marine Parade GRC to anchor the newly created Pasir Ris GRC, in what was his first General Election since becoming full minister the year before.
However, observers noted that a team’s anchor may not necessarily be a full Cabinet minister, and could be someone at a senior minister of state level – something which the Punggol team already has.
Dr Mustafa cited the instance of Eunos GRC in 1991, when the four-member constituency was led by Senior Minister of State Tay Eng Soon.
Ultimately, who the anchor minister is or whether there is one in the first place, is likely not a determining factor in voters’ choice, he said.
“In 2015, the PAP grassroots team in Aljunied did very well and came very close to winning it back for the PAP, and they did not have an anchor minister,” he said.
He noted also that in 2020, the PAP’s Sengkang GRC slate featured Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Ng Chee Meng among three political office holders in the team, but they still lost to the WP.
“To some extent, the anchor minister role has become irrelevant, because voters want to know not so much what their representative can do for the nation, but what they can do for them at the local municipal level,” said Assoc Prof Singh.
“You’re also more busy as a minister, so there will be some people who may think you won’t be able to help them at the local level.”
For Cabinet ministers, their reputations — sometimes negative — also precede them if they move constituencies, because they’re always in the national spotlight, said Assoc Prof Singh.
He believed that the “flight to safety” principle no longer exists, whether it’s a familiar anchor minister or the ruling party brand, as shown in the 2020 General Election held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
GAINING POLITICAL LEVERAGE
Observers told CNA that the ruling party might be withholding its slates in those three wards for strategic purposes, as they want to keep their cards close to their chests until the last moment.
This also indicates that those areas are where close fights are expected in the coming hustings.
“It’s more of a political chess game and not revealing it until the very end gains maximum political leverage,” said Dr Mustafa.
He said that not revealing a proposed final line-up leaves the party room to shuffle personnel around on Nomination Day itself.
“As we saw in 2020, they could do a switcheroo on the day itself, and they want to be able to have that opportunity to do it. If they unveil the line-up earlier, then it will be somewhat strange to change it subsequently,” he explained.
WP chief Pritam Singh had said over the weekend that his party was “very mindful” about the signals it sends, when asked about the caution from the PAP in revealing their line-ups in wards such as East Coast GRC ahead of Nomination Day.
“It is very well-known that we are a very small party, and so we have to be mindful how we employ our strategy,” he had said.
However, there are cons to this secretive strategy too, noted observers.
The longer voters are kept in suspense, the more uncertainty they will feel as they do not know who is going to represent them, said Dr Mustafa.
New candidates or those who have moved from another constituency may also have a shorter runway to become familiarised with the voters, he added.
“So it is in the interest of all political parties who plan to contest in a particular constituency, to unveil their candidates early enough so that the voters know who they are, and they can create that social bond with the voters,” he said.
SLATES ANNOUNCED
Since Apr 12, the ruling party has been gradually unveiling the likely candidates it will field for the May 3 polls.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had kicked things off in his own ward by naming an unchanged team in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.
