March 12, 2025
Singapore – Major changes ahead of Singapore's next election will see the creation of another group representative constituency and a single-seat ward, bringing the total to 18 GRC and 15 single-seat constituencies.
The number of elected members of Congress will increase to 97, from the current 93.
The 22 election boundaries in the current 31 constituencies will change.
The release of the Election Boundary Review Commission (EBRC) report on March 11 marks an important step in the next general election and is expected to be held in the first half of 2025.
In its report, the EBRC explained that voters have grown significantly in individual seats in Pasir Ris-Punggol, Sembawang and Tampines GRC, as well as Hong Kong’s North and Potong Pasir.
It said this was largely due to population changes and new housing developments in these areas. Since GE2E20, the number of voters in each of these constituencies has increased by more than 10,000 times.
The revision of electoral boundaries in these regions has had a chain effect on the borders of certain surrounding constituencies, the EBRC said.
With the latest changes, the number of four members GRC will grow from six to eight, while the number of five-person GRCs will drop from 11 to 10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlxoh3jbjdg
A key change is creating a new four-person punggol GRC. It will take part of the Punggol West SMC and Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, which will narrow down to the new four-member Pasir Ris-Changi GRC.
Five SMCs have been removed from the map, while six new SMCs have been added. The individual seats removed are: Bukit Bartok, Hong Kong North, McPherson, Bongel West and Yuhuya.
Most of the new SMCs are carved from existing GRC. They are: Bukit Gombak, Jalan Kayu, Jurong Central, Queenstown, Sembawang West and Tampines Changkat.
Three polling areas in the light water area east of the Bedoke Reservoir have been transferred from the opposition-controlled Aljunied GRC to the Tampines GRC.
The Sengkang GRC, also held by the Workers' Party, is one of the nine constituencies and there is no change in the electoral borders. The other eight are Bishan-Toa Payoh, Jalan Besar, Marsiling-Yew Tee and Nee Soon GRCS; and Bukit Panjang, Hougang, Marymount and Pioneer SMCS.
An estimated 2,753,226 voters will go to the polls in 2025, an increase of 101,791 from GE2020.
The Election Department (ELD) said on March 11 that the EBRC submitted a report to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on March 7.
Major changes have been made in the eastern and western parts of Singapore, and the most intense electoral battle is expected.
In the east, the new Pasir Ris-Changi GRC will be formed by merging part of Pasir Ris-Punggol and East Coast GRC.
The East Coast is still a five-person GRC. However, it will occupy 15 voting areas of the Ocean Parade GRC – mainly the apartments of Chaiche and the private estates of Siglap. The constituency was fiercely contested by the People's Action Party and WP in 2020, and the ruling party eventually won 53.39% of the vote.
A new five-member ocean parade – Bradell Heights GRC will absorb McPherson's single seat. It will occupy two polling districts in Potong Pasir, where many new apartments have been built in the Bidadari area, as well as part of the existing Marine Parade GRC and Mountbatten SMC.
In the west, the new five-man West Coast West GRC will be awarded from the adjacent honors West and Taman Jurong to occupy the estate.
Dover and Telok Blangah's estates are part of the existing West Coast GRC and will be absorbed into the Tanjong Pagar GRC. The West Coast GRC achieved the closest battle in 2020, when PAP won the vote against Progressive Singapore Party with a 51.69% vote.
Meanwhile, a new five-man East-Bukit Batok GRC will vote from the existing winning GRC, as well as part of the three SMCs taken from the map – Bukit Batok, Hong Kah North and Yuhua.
The EBRC consists of five senior civil servants and was established seven weeks ago on January 22. It is instructed to maintain the average size of the GRC, the proportion of members of Congress elected from the SMC and the average ratio of electors to those elected members of Congress.
The average number of MPs in each GRC is 4.56, down from 4.65. In the upcoming general election, each member will have about 28,384 voters, and now there will be 28,510 voters.
About 15.5% of MP will be selected from single-seat wards, compared to 15.1% in the last election.
The next big step is when the parliament will be dissolved and the election writ is issued. The writ lists the dates for the nomination date when the selector confirms the constituency they endure.
Nomination dates may be held for at least nine days of campaign and cooling days before voting dates (when campaigns are prohibited).
In the past four elections, the time between the EBRC report and the release of the voting day is between two and four months.
Prime Minister Wong admitted in a Facebook post that the report was submitted.
“The next milestone will be to update and prove the voter’s register before the election is called later,” he said.
Political observers point out that this is the reason why EBRC proposed its decision for the first time in decades. Past reports since the 1990s have often illuminated border changes with little explanation.
They suggested that the Commission might do so in response to a way of working that requires higher transparency.
PAP said in a statement that its branches and activists will make “necessary adjustments” to prepare for the election.
It added: “At the same time, residents can continue to seek help from their existing PAP branches.”
It said party branches will continue to listen to residents’ feedback, understand their needs, and act on their behalf to improve the community.
The latest revision of electoral borders has also sparked reactions from opposition parties, some of whom expressed disappointment at the changes in the front line.
PSP Secretary General Hazel POA said in a statement that she was excited by the EBRC's actions and disclosed the reasoning behind its decision.
“However, the PSP's view is that most of the decisions made by EBRC are still unexplainable, and EBRC may lead to population transfer without a huge change in existing major electoral boundaries,” she said.
WP noted that the report contained “short reasons” for border changes and that there were “significant changes” in areas where they have been working in the past few years.
It added that it will share more information about the constituency and potential candidates when appropriate.
