Results from a survey by market research consultancy Blackbox shows that nine in 10 people in Singapore felt that the process of selecting Singapore’s next Prime Minister should be made more transparent.
Blackbox had almost correctly predicted the results for the last General Election in 2015 with its survey based on satisfaction of voters on their perception of improvement in the country by the PAP government.
The Yahoo Singapore commissioned survey of 897 Singaporeans also showed that four in 10 respondents felt very strongly about it.
According to the survey, this is a sentiment that resonated across age and ethnic groups. For example, some 43 percent of those aged 25-34 strongly agreed on the need for more transparency, while 40 percent of those aged 50 and above also felt the same.
41 percent of Chinese respondents felt the same way, followed by 40 per cent of Indians and 36 percent of Malays.
In the same survey, 69 percent of all 897 respondents support 59-year-old Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam to be the next Prime Minister who was said to be the most preferred choice among Singaporeans.
The survey also mentions 7 other possible candidates, they are Teo Chee Hean, Heng Swee Keat, Chan Chun Sing,Ng Chee Meng, Ong Ye Kung, Lawrence Wong and Tan Chuan-Jin.
The respondents were allowed to choose more than one contender for the job.
The survey shows that Mr Tharman led three other men who emerged as possible contenders, DPM Teo Chee Hean (34 percent), Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat (25 percent) and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing (24 percent).
Of the other possible candidates named in the poll, Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin garnered 16 percent of the vote. While National Development Minister Lawrence Wong and Acting Education Ministers Ong Ye Kung and Ng Chee Meng, all got less than 10 percent.
Majority of comments online share a common point that it does not matter who will become the next president so long he or she is capable to handle the issues the country is facing.
Here are what some of them had wrote :