regarding issues of by-elections.....
The death of Dr Ong Chit Chung raises the question of whether a by-election should be held in Jurong GRC, where he was an MP.
According to Mr Lim Boon Heng, also an MP in Jurong GRC, and constitutional law expert Kevin Tan, no by-election is mandated, and the workload can be shared by the remaining GRC team. (ST article, 15 July)
For example, when senior minister of state for education Tay Eng Soon died in August 1993, other Eunos GRC MPs — Mr Charles Chong, Mr Chew Heng Ching and Mr Sidek Saniff — took care of Dr Tay’s residents in Tampines North.
In 1999, when then-Jalan Besar GRC MP Choo Wee Khiang resigned his seat in Parliament before he was convicted of a cheating offence, the three remaining MPs in Jalan Besar GRC — Dr Lee Boon Yang, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim and Mr Peh Chin Hua — took over Mr Choo’s duties in the Whampoa division.
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PM Lee told reporters that a by-election is not on the cards for Ang Mo Kio GRC. He saw no difficulty in the five other MPs taking over Dr Balaji's duties in the GRC's Cheng San-Seletar ward.
'There is nothing automatic about calling a by-election. We have discussed this many times,' he said in response to a reporter's question. This is in keeping with what happened in Jurong GRC, when a by-election was not called after MP Ong Chit Chung died in July 2008.