In aspiring for political maturity, should Singaporeans look beyond just being able to vote?

It was at the 2011 General Election that Singapore last saw a walkover.

- Goh Yan Han

With all seats contested for two consecutive elections since then, it came as a shock that Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC went uncontested on Nomination Day earlier this week, sending five PAP candidates into Parliament.

Some residents told The Straits Times they were shocked, disappointed, and "let down" that they would not be able to exercise their right to vote on May 3.

Opposition parties piled on to criticise the Workers' Party, which everyone had assumed for months would return to contest the group representation constituency but eventually did not field a team.

Cries of "opposition unity" hung on the lips of various opposition figures, as they lamented the lack of communication between the WP and the other parties that would have been more than happy to field a team in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights.

In a short amount of time, Singaporeans have become accustomed to having the chance to mark a simple X next to a party logo, an exercise in democracy that will inform the next five years of nation building.

But for the country to move forward, we may need to accept that with political maturity comes strategic decisions by political parties that voters could find hard to swallow—including not getting the chance to vote.

THE RIGHT TO VOTESingapore, with its 60 years of independence, has not had a very long electoral history.

The 2006 election was the first time in 18 years that the PAP did not return to power immediately on Nomination Day.

In that election, 47 seats were contested, with walkovers for the remaining 37 seats. It was the biggest election since the 1980s, and then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's first as head of government.

In 2011, almost every constituency was contested—except for Tanjong Pagar GRC. That was also the year the WP won its first GRC in Aljunied.