By Xinghui Kok
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore has revised its electoral boundaries, the Elections Department said on Tuesday, a move usually seen as a sign that the government is preparing to call a general election.
The election due by November 2025, though Prime Minister Lawrence Wong can call it earlier, will be his first such test since taking over from long-time premier Lee Hsien Loong as leader of the People’s Action Party in May 2024.
Tuesday’s report on new electoral boundaries, which were attributed to population shifts, is a closely watched event because past elections have followed months after the release of previous reports.
The PAP is almost certain to dominate and win most seats, as it has in every vote since independence in 1965, although its share of the popular vote will be closely watched after one of its worst electoral performances in the last contest in 2020.
“I think the introduction of more single-member constituencies may limit potential losses for the ruling party,” said political scientist Chong Ja Ian. “If there is a loss, it’s only one seat as opposed to four or five.”
Four more seats will be up for grabs in the coming election than in the 2020 vote, with 97 lawmakers elected from 15 single-member electoral divisions, and 18 divisions with four or five members each.
The new boundaries effectively carve out a few new single-member electoral divisions from what used to be multiple-member areas that drew strong competition from the opposition in previous elections.
The election commission said the government has accepted the recommendations of the boundary report, submitted to Wong last Friday.
In February, Wong delivered what analysts called “a full-blown election budget” with incentives for all Singaporeans ahead of the polls.
(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by John Mair and Clarence Fernandez)
