Power breakfasts, secret switches and first salvos - let the hustings begin

Stage set for flurry of political activity as Singapore's 14th general election kicks off

- Clement Yong

The 14th general election of independent Singapore officially got under way on an intermittently rainy but otherwise nondescript morning on April 23, setting the stage for a flurry of political activity that the 60-year-old island state is unused to.

Outside the nine nomination centres - where the finalised slates of candidates would be confirmed by noon suited office-goers continued their morning commutes; cleaners kept up their day-to-day duties; an uncle rolled up the shutters at his neighbourhood store in Hougang with minimum fuss.

Yet beneath this calm veneer was an undercurrent of electric restlessness. An unusual number of people were instinctively refreshing their phones. Belying Singapore's reputational reticence, there was open chatter about politics in hawker centres. Not to mention decked-out supporters beginning to chant in processional indecorum at 9am.

But this is to get ahead of proceedings: It all, as with the best days, began with breakfast, on this occasion a morning ritual transmuted into a blunt instrument for a show of force. There were no rules against candidates going to the centres themselves and meeting up with colleagues there, but understatedness is not for veteran politicians and parties; critical mass is what is called for in a public exercise where optics are necessarily the name of the game.

At shopping mall Link@896 in Dunearn Road, a throng of PAP supporters congregated in a holding room that had drinks and snacks prepared a common theme everywhere with the ruling party's busloads of grassroots volunteers and supporters transported to centres.