One of my friends asked me over lunch, “Are you not afraid that when you wake up on 8th May morning, you found out that PAP has lost the elections and will not be forming the government?” My answer to him was, “No”, it will never happen, even if the percentage of votes are 49% to PAP and 51% to the opposition, there will not be freak results where PAP will not return to power.
Why?, let me explain in my simple minded logic. The British Parliamentary System is very simple, the party that garner the simple majority of seats will come into power and form the government, it does not say if you have the majority of votes, you will win, rather, you garner more the half the seats in the House, you then have the right to form the government.
Our parliament currently consist of 87 seats, of which latest is that 82 are being contested, rumours is that Tanjong Pager GRC (5 seats) will not be contested, so PAP will need to win another 39 seats to have a simple majority in the House to form the government. Workers Party, the biggest opposition party, from news reports will be fielding 23 candidates, and even if they win all seats contested, they do not have a majority in Parliament to form the government. The rest of the smaller parties are not able to field enough candidates to form any government.
PAP, being incumbent will definitely be winning many GRCs as well as SMCs, it is not possible that they will lose all seats they are fielding candidates in, it is unforeseeable. Even if they did, none of the opposition will win enough seats in Parliament to form the government. There is no need for any discussions about what if PAP lost all, as it will never happen, they will definitely lose the percentage of votes but am quite sure they will win at least the required 44 seats to return to power.
Do not listen to the nonsense from Straits Times about Freak Results, it will not happen.
Again, even if PAP garner 49% of the total votes cast, they can return to power.
Why?, let me explain in my simple minded logic. The British Parliamentary System is very simple, the party that garner the simple majority of seats will come into power and form the government, it does not say if you have the majority of votes, you will win, rather, you garner more the half the seats in the House, you then have the right to form the government.
Our parliament currently consist of 87 seats, of which latest is that 82 are being contested, rumours is that Tanjong Pager GRC (5 seats) will not be contested, so PAP will need to win another 39 seats to have a simple majority in the House to form the government. Workers Party, the biggest opposition party, from news reports will be fielding 23 candidates, and even if they win all seats contested, they do not have a majority in Parliament to form the government. The rest of the smaller parties are not able to field enough candidates to form any government.
PAP, being incumbent will definitely be winning many GRCs as well as SMCs, it is not possible that they will lose all seats they are fielding candidates in, it is unforeseeable. Even if they did, none of the opposition will win enough seats in Parliament to form the government. There is no need for any discussions about what if PAP lost all, as it will never happen, they will definitely lose the percentage of votes but am quite sure they will win at least the required 44 seats to return to power.
Do not listen to the nonsense from Straits Times about Freak Results, it will not happen.
Again, even if PAP garner 49% of the total votes cast, they can return to power.
