Members of the Workers’ Party (WP) and candidates have been walking the ground and meeting residents in their constituency during house visits.
Despite the sudden announcement of the formation of the Electoral Boundary Review Committee (EBRC) yesterday (4 September) by the Elections Department, these individuals seem unfazed by the news and continued meeting regular Singaporeans to speak with them.
As such, one of the individuals is Aljunied GRC Member of Parliament (MP) and Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh himself. He took to his Facebook on Wednesday (4 September) to share stories of residents he met during the house visits in his constituency yesterday.
He started his post by stating that many people messaged to inform him about the formation of the Electoral Boundary Review Committee (EBRC) while he was in Parliament yesterday. He said that the messages continued to increase rapidly throughout the night, even when he was out for house visits after the Parliament sitting.
According to a statement by the Elections Department, the committee, which was formed last month, is chaired by the Secretary to the Prime Minister and is now “in the midst of deliberations” and will make its recommendations to the Prime Minister upon completion of its review.
Commenting on the Elections Department’s announcement, Mr Singh said that it is interesting that they “did not state when in August the committee was convened”.
In his post, Mr Singh also shared personal stories of families that he met during the house visits in his constituency. The first person he mentioned in his post is an 84-year-old woman named Madam Choo. Mr Singh describes her a “fantastic lady” with a “heart of gold”. He explained that he often sees her at “Blk 630 hawker centre with her friends and she is a lovely person to all those who know her, regardless of race or religion”.
Besides Madam Choo, the MP also met a resident named Azmi, who lives a few floors below the senior citizen’s flat.
“A few floors down, Azmi and his family interrupted their dinner to say hello. It is always heartwarming to see families eating together without the distraction of smartphones getting in the way of real conversations,” Mr Singh wrote.
If that is not all, the politician also met Syed, a retired police veteran, and his wife Jenny last night. “Syed joined the Singapore Police Force and retired after 34 years of service. A police veteran, having served since 1967, he recalled with fondness his posting at the Queenstown Police Station during the time of the 1981 Anson by-election”.
He also said his wife and elder daughter were also present in the constituency waiting for him to finish his house visits.
“Like the families I meet during house-visits, the love of my family keeps me going – be it an election this year or the next!”
Besides Mr Singh, former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Yee Jenn Jong also took to his Facebook yesterday to highlight his experience of meeting quite a number of residents as the team managed to “cover more homes than usual at Marine Drive”.
In his post, he noted that it was “good to meet some familiar residents” during the house visits. He added that he was impressed to see many musicians in the two blocks that his team covered, with many of them placing their music instruments prominently in the living rooms.
“One had a huge Double Bass and several guitars which the resident proudly said his son plays actively in various bands, even as he serves NS now. Another said her husband, a professional musician plays all the varied instruments we saw in the house,” he wrote.
Stressing how the formation of EBRC didn’t change his plan, Mr Yee said that it was “purely coincidental” that his team chose Wednesday as their regular house visits.
“On our way there, the news reported that the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee had been formed last month. Let’s hope there will be more transparency and details in the report, and more time given from the publication of the report to the calling of GE,” he said at the end of his post.
