Will WP Stronghold Aljunied Feel the Sting of Controversies?

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 Aljunied GRC.

- Isabelle Liew

As the first group representation constituency ever won by an opposition party, Aljunied has taken on added significance at the upcoming general election.

The constituency — made up of 144,032 voters — in Eunos and Bedok Reservoir-Punggol in the east, Kaki Bukit in the south, Paya Lebar in the centre and Serangoon in the west — has shaped up as a stronghold for the WP over the past three elections.

This election, the boundaries will remain largely unchanged, apart from three polling districts in Tampines West—comprising 3,834 voters—moving to the PAP-held Tampines GRC.

The opposition party first wrested Aljunied from the PAP in the 2011 General Election, with the WP team led by then party chief Low Thia Khiang, and consisting of party chairman Sylvia Lim, corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, family counsellor Faisal Manap and postgraduate law student Pritam Singh, winning 54.72 per cent of the valid votes.

Then, in the 2015 GE, the same team barely held on to the constituency, picking up 50.96 per cent of votes after a nail-biting battle that triggered a recount into the wee hours.

In the Covid-19 pandemic polls in 2020, the party managed a near 10-point swing, winning with 59.95 per cent of votes.

The comfortable victory solidified Mr Singh's position in the party — it was his first electoral outing after taking over as party chief from Mr Low in 2018 — and entrenched Aljunied GRC as the WP's home base.

This has sparked talk once again about whether the time is ripe for one of the WP Aljunied stalwarts to repeat the feat achieved by Mr Low in 2011, when he left his stronghold of Hougang to lead the WP to the opposition's first-ever victory in a GRC.

WP declined requests for an interview for this report.

HOW THE BATTLE WILL SHAPE UP

In some ways, the party will go into the upcoming polls in Aljunied from a position of strength.