East Coast GRC absorbs Marine Parade's Joo Chiat ward

The GRC will now have 25% more voters after taking in Chai Chee HDB estates too

- Wong Pei Ting

Voter numbers in East Coast GRC will get a 25 per cent bump after absorbing the Housing Board estates in Chai Chee and Joo Chiat ward, which are part of Marine Parade GRC.

With the addition of the 40,675 voters from Marine Parade GRC, East Coast GRC will have 150,691 voters — up from 120,239 voters in the 2020 General Election.

This will make it the fourth-largest five-member GRC in the 2025 polls, behind Ang Mo Kio, West Coast-Jurong West and Nee Soon — a major change from its status as the smallest five-person GRC in 2020.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat helmed East Coast GRC at the 2020 General Election, in which his People's Action Party team locked horns with the Workers' Party and secured 53.39 per cent of the vote, making it the second-worst performing GRC won by the ruling party.

The latest boundary changes were outlined in the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee report released on March 11.

East Coast GRC will absorb all of Joo Chiat ward, which is overseen by Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong. It includes the Telok Kurau and Opera Estate landed enclaves as well as the stretch of condominiums on the eastern tip of Marine Parade Road, where Mandarin Gardens and Laguna Park are located.