The People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Lawrence Wong met with activists from his party to answer questions on the party’s performance during the recent election.
The PAP’s vote share dipped from 69.9% to 61.2% during this election.
Wong said that the PAP is of course disappointed to lose another GRC, but he added: “The Sengkang team gave their all but the desire for more opposition was too strong. Our hearts also go out to our teams in Aljunied and Hougang…..but these are hard grounds where we are the opposition and it takes real commitment, courage, and resilience to fight them.”
Wong also said: “Much of the commentary that we read nowadays is focused on the young, and there have been suggestions that they have abandoned the PAP…But let’s again see this in perspective. In many constituencies across Singapore with young voters we received good support. For example in Punggol West, we won 61 per cent of the votes.
Wong added: “Bear in mind that first-time voters from the age of 21 to 24 are less than 10 per cent of the electorate. In total, the 20s and 30s….constitute roughly one third of the electorate. But those who are 40 and above are close to 70 per cent of the electorate. So the swing against the PAP was not concentrated solely among the young.”
However, Wong relented that “it would be difficult to get neat 70% as we did in 2015 (sic” because the desire for opposition is strong”.
Wong also added that: “The WP says that their long term aim is to deny the PAP two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. But I have no doubt that they wish to displace the PAP and form the government one day, except that they find it inconvenient to acknowledge this now.”