Constituencies in North-Eastern Singapore

IF I were the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee

Other than Pasir Ris - Punggol GRC, the North East is full of opposition strongholds. Hence any changes here has to be handled carefully, lest complaints of Gerrymandering or even worse, more constituencies falling to the control of the Opposition parties. 

I decided to group these GRCs and the Potong Pasir SMC together here as the Northeast Region as all these constituencies are built around the MRT Northeast Line

Punggol GRC

3 - Member Group Constituency (GRC)

As mentioned in my complaints of the Pasir Ris - Punggol GRC, I believe Punggol should be detached from Seng Kang and Pasir Ris, and made into its own GRC. Currently, it would only contain 2 constituencies; Punggol West and Punggol North. However, I expect this to be the be the fastest growing area as a very large portion of new HDB flats are planned to be built in Punggol. The constituencies can be re-arranged to; Punggol West, Punggol Central and Punggol East (not to be confused with the SMC Punggol East, which actually covers Sengkang and not Punggol)

The boundaries for this GRC are nice and clear, with Sungei Punggol and Sungei Serangoon on the east and west respectively, and the TPE to the south.

How Likely will we see the formation of this GRC in GE 2015/2016

Unlikely. As mentioned previously, there is possible reluctance to break-up the strong 6-membered Pasir Ris Punggol GRC. But if this GRC surfaces, the PAP would be expected to do well here. 

This Punggol GRC was part of the GRC previously contested by SDA, and has never performed well in this area. I would believe they would have interest to run here. 

However, the Workers party is also active in this Area, and might be interested to contest here. Because of its small size for a GRC, we might possibly see the only 3 cornered fight for a GRC. 

Seng Kang GRC

5 - Member Group Constituency (GRC)

Sengkang is actually very nicely divided and labelled, so it actually seemed such a big waste not to used the various labelled areas for the various individual constituencies; Rivervale to the east, followed by Compassvale, Anchorvale, and Fernvale to the west, across Sungei Punggol. To the south there is Bangkok and to the west there is Seletar

Seletar has 2 parts; the private houses east of the CTE, and the Seletar Airbase/ Airport area. 

Because Buangkok and Seletar is smaller than the other 4 constituency, I considered making them into a single Seletar-Buangkok Constituency. An alternative is to make Seletar a constituency by itself and either park it with Seng Kang or Ang Mo Kio, making either a 6 membered GRC.

A third option was for Buangkok to be an a standalone SMC, but I decided to just park it under Sengkang for now because of the lack of amenities like a major Shopping centre. A small factor in favour of this is how Buangkok is serviced by buses from Sengkang Bus Interchange. 

So I eventually decided to make Buangkok a constituency under Sengkang, and park Seletar under the Fernvale Constituency as the part of Seletar along Jalan Kayu would be the best connected to Singapores MRT network via the LRT at Fernvale and Thanggam. 

Hence, unlike all the GRCs and SMCs where I heavily relied on the current existing constituencies, I created the constituencies based on the names of the current areas, and built the GRC around them. 

The boundaries for this GRC is Lower Seletar Reservoir and the SLE/CTE to the East, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5/Buangkok Green/ Buangkok Dr to the south, Sungei Serangoon/ TPE and Sungei Punggol to the east.

How Likely will we see the formation of this GRC in GE 2015/2016

There is a good possibility. Besides the same reluctance to break-up the strong 6-membered Pasir Ris Punggol GRC mentioned above, this GRC takes portions of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Ang Mo Kio's Jalan Kayu, both of which are GRC that vote overwhelmingly for PAP, and combines it with the Punggol East and Sengkang West SMCS, giving the PAP a very good chance to win back Punggol East, which was won by the Workers' party in the 2013 by-election. Teo Ser Luck would most likely lead the PAP team here. 

Hougang GRC3 - Member Group Constituency (GRC)

Similar to the situation around Sembawang, I found the area around Houngang MRT to be weirdly butchered, with part of it forming Hougang SMC, part forming half of Bedok Reservoir-Punggol constituency in Aljunied GRC, and also from Ang Mo Kio GRC's Ang Mo Kio-Hougang constituency and half of the Sengkang South- Hougang constituency. When we rearrange all these, we can easily form a 3 membered GRC, centered aroung Hougang.

Although this would cause the boundaries to look irregular, i think it is better to include the HDB flats north of the Hougang stadium, and the Serangoon North Ave 1 residences together with Houngang.

The boundaries for this GRC is the CTE to the west, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5/Buangkok Green/Buangkok Dr to the north, Sungei Serangoon, the perimeter of Paya Lebar Airbase, Tampines Road, Upper Serangoon Road, Lim Ah Pin Rd, Florence Rd, Hougang Ave 2, Serangoon North Ave 1 and Ang Mo Kio Ave 3. 

How Likely will we see the formation of this GRC in GE 2015/2016

Highly unlikely. Hougang is currentý Worker's Party's stronghold, which they have held for 20 years. 1.5 constituencies is also from Aljunied, which is also currently held by WP. Hence such a GRC would give the Opposition a good opportunity to pick up another GRC. Hence it would be a very unlikely GRC.

Serangoon GRC

4 - Member Group Constituency (GRC)

One thing that really annoyed me about the current Electoral Boundaries is that Aljunied is not part of Aljunied GRC. As with all the GRCs in the east, Aljunied is one big sprawling mess, from which we had taken out the Hougang part of the Bedok Reservoir - Punggol constituency to give to the Hougang GRC, combined the remaining Bedok Reservoir part with the Eunos constituency and given that and the Kaki Bukit Constituency to the Bedok GRC. This leaves us with only the Paya Lebar and the Serangoon Constituencies. However, to this we also add Braddell  Heights, which we have removed from Marine Parade GRC

With a bit of rearrangement, we get 4 constituencies; Braddell Heights (to be renamed Serangoon), Paya Lebar (to be renamed Lorong Ah Soo - Which now also includes Defu and excludes the northern parts given to Hougang), Kovan (which is bounded by Yio Chu Kang Road, Boundary Road, Upper Serangoon Road and Hougang Ave 2), and Serangoon Gardens. As a whole, this GRC would be known as Serangoon GRC.

How Likely will we see the formation of this GRC in GE 2015/2016

Highly unlikely. This takes part of Aljunied, which is currently under the control of Workers Party, and makes very drastic changes to its composition, which usually do not sit well with voters, even if the new configuration is actually in the favour of the opposition. But if this GRC does indeed appear, it should comfortably remain with the opposition.

Potong Pasir SMC

Single Member Constituency (SMC)

Potong Pasir is an SMC that was the Opposition's stronghold for many years, but was recently won last Election by PAP, by 0.8% only. While not changing the boundaries might result in PAP losing this constituency again, changing it might have terrible effects perception-wise, nationwide.

The boundaries should be unchanged from its present boundaries, with a slight reduction of parts of Toa Payoh, to give Potong Pasirs a clearer boundary lines. To the west, we have the CTE and the PIE to the south. To the east was Aljunied Road/ Upper Paya Lebar Road, and Bartley Road/Braddell Road to the north,

How Likely will we see the formation of this SMC in GE 2015/2016

Very good chance. I think this would be one of the few SMCs that will be untouched. However, it would be difficult to say if Chiam See Tong would return to re-contest this SMC that he won and held for 22 years, before being lost by his wife. Sitoh Yin Pin would naturally return to defend his seat.