Former Cabinet Minister George Yeo on Friday (Sep 18) said he was surprised by the results of the 2015 General Election, where the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) took almost 70 per cent of the votes.
“I didn’t expect a landslide (win),” said Mr Yeo, who spoke to media after the launch of an art installation at Bedok Reservoir Park on Friday (Sep 18), which he donated an undisclosed sum to. “I think on Cooling-Off Day, after all that the people saw and heard, people got a little worried that the day after may result in a very different Singapore.”
“So everyone took two steps back and reflected: There are problems, but this is a wonderful country, and we all like coming back here when we travel. This is home,” added the former Member of Parliament, who served Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) from 1988 to 2011.
“And collectively, when everyone came to that conclusion, I think it contributed to this outcome.”
Pointing out that the battle for Aljunied GRC between the PAP and the Workers’ Party (WP) this election was “very close”, Mr Yeo said that he “thought Victor Lye and his team did a very good job winning back a large part of the crowd”.
The WP team, led by chief Low Thia Khiang, retained Aljunied GRC with 50.95 per cent of the votes against PAP’s Mr Lye, Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, Mr Chua Eng Leong, Mr Shamsul Kamar and Mr K Muralidharan Pillai.
In 2011, the same WP slate of Mr Low, Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Chen Show Mao, Mr Pritam Singh and Mr Faisal Manap won Aljunied by 54.72 per cent of the votes, ousting the PAP team helmed by Mr Yeo.
Mr Yeo stepped down from politics thereafter.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
