PSP set to field A-team against PAP in new West Coast-Jurong West GRC

With battle lines redrawn and significant changes to many constituencies, which will be the ones under the spotlight in GE2025? The Straits Times dives into the issues and concerns on the ground in West Coast-Jurong West, where the People's Action Party won by the smallest margin in GE2020.

- Ng Wei Kai and Chin Hui Shan

The electoral battle in West Coast Jurong West GRC will be closely watched as the Progress Singapore Party looks set to return with its A-team to challenge a refreshed PAP slate.

The PAP won the constituency in its previous form — West Coast GRC — with 51.68 per cent of the vote against a PSP team led by former PAP stalwart Tan Cheng Bock.

It was the narrowest win for the ruling party, and political observers expect the constituency to be keenly contested again.

Since 2020, its boundaries have been significantly redrawn, with possible electoral implications.

About 41,000 voters from Jurong GRC — mostly from the Jurong Spring and Taman Jurong wards — will join the renamed West Coast Jurong West GRC.

The five-member constituency will also cede estates in Harbour Front and Sentosa to Radin Mas SMC, and Dover and Telok Blangah estates to Tanjong Pagar GRC.

With these changes, the new West Coast-Jurong West GRC will comprise the wards of Boon Lay, Nanyang, West Coast, Ayer Rajah Gek Poh, Taman Jurong and parts of Jurong Spring.

The new boundaries could give the PAP a "lift", as the Taman Jurong ward was a PAP stronghold under long-time MP and now President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan.

Mr Tharman represented Taman Jurong from 2001 to 2023, and returned the ruling party's biggest win in several elections.

But the PSP has also had time to build its national reputation.

PSP's 2020 showing had allowed it to send two Non-Constituency MPs into Parliament — Mr Leong Mun Wai and Ms Hazel Poa.

The pair's performance in Parliament has allowed the PSP to build its national brand and standing, said Institute of Policy Studies senior research fellow Gillian Koh.

HOW THE BATTLE WILL SHAPE UP

How the election will pan out depends on whom both parties field — and neither side has confirmed its slate.