SINGAPORE: Heading into his first General Election as leader of the ruling party, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Saturday (Apr 12) that he does not have a target vote share in mind and that he is expecting fierce competition across all wards.

“I'm sure the candidates across Singapore, across every constituency, will have the same attitude and mindset, because at the national level, I have no doubt this will be a fiercely contested election,” he said, during a news conference announcing the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC slate.

He added that “there are no longer any safe seats” across the electoral map, as every seat can be hotly contested and “anything can happen in a campaign”.

The opposition has contested every seat in the last two general elections.

Even in his own ward of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Mr Wong said he does not take the contest lightly, acknowledging the Singapore Democratic Party’s intent to field a team there.

He said his team will still have to work hard to fight for every vote, and to win the trust of residents there, something which “we have built up over many years”.

“I don't take the view that just because I'm here as prime minister, it's a sure win, or we will surely get above national average, as some of you have asked me about,” he said.

He added that he does not assume the PAP will automatically win the upcoming election either.

“I don't come in with an expectation of a target or a particular figure in terms of what we might get in vote share for the party or for the GRC,” said Mr Wong.

The PAP won the last general election with 61.24 per cent of the votes, down from 69.9 per cent in 2015.

“All I will do is do my best as party leader, as anchor for the GRC, and I expect the rest of my team to do the same,” said Mr Wong.

“We will, at the end, after doing our best, respect the outcome of the elections based on the decisions of Singaporeans.”

PAP ELECTION MANIFESTO

A key part of the party’s manifesto for the coming contest would be presenting the policies and programmes to steer the country through the ongoing transition to a new global order, said Mr Wong.

“I think the changes in the world certainly are uppermost on people's minds. So as far as our manifesto and our messages for the elections are concerned, we will have to address it, because it is a different world,” he said.

Beyond the economic uncertainty, there may also be instability.

“This transition, as all global transitions are, will be messy, it will be unpredictable, it may even be unstable,” he said, adding that the current crisis is different from any challenges Singapore has gone through before.

While Singapore previously went through economic downturns, financial crises and also the COVID-19 pandemic, it was all under a rules-based global order which was stable and certain, allowing the country to bounce back quickly.

“I can't say the same this time, because we really don't know, quite aside from the tariffs and the economic uncertainty, how the entire global system will evolve, and whether or not that same stability and certainty that allowed us to bounce back quickly will exist in the coming years,” he said.

The stakes are hence “much higher than before” as Singapore now has to operate in this new environment, said Mr Wong.

“And this is indeed what we will highlight in the election, and what the PAP offers in terms of the people, the team, and our programmes and policies to take Singapore forward,” he said.

“We hope, as I said just now, that hearing from us, Singaporeans will not just look at our track record and assume that just because the PAP has been in power all these 60 years, automatically we will continue to be in power.”

FEARMONGERING?

In response to allegations from the opposition that the government is fearmongering amid the tariffs imposed globally by US President Donald Trump, Mr Wong said that the Singapore government faced similar criticism previously when COVID-19 struck.

“People can say what they want. I remember when we started COVID and the government started a task force at that time. Don't you remember, Gan Kim Yong and I came up, met all of you in the media, and there were similar questions. ‘Really, was it necessary? Aren't you fearmongering? Aren't you overreacting?’ And look what happened,” he said.

Mr Wong had co-chaired the COVID-19 Multi-Ministry Taskforce with Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong back when it was formed in 2020.

“In election season, you will have all sorts of criticisms and all sorts of people throwing out arguments,” he said.

All the government can do is “make rigorous, objective assessment of the threats and challenges that Singapore faces, and then be upfront and transparent with Singaporeans” about them, said Mr Wong.

This means not “overdoing or underdoing” them, but setting out quite clearly what the immediate and long-term challenges are and how the situation may unfold, he said.

“And we have tried our best to do this in the current context, because it's, as we say, not just about tariffs. It's also not just about this year's economy, but also a broader concern that we are worried about,” said Mr Wong.

The shift to the new global order can impact the world and Singapore “for some time to come”, and the government has responded by setting up a new task force to understand how best Singapore can respond, chaired by Mr Gan.

“That's how we've done it all this while, regardless of the criticisms which will come, but we will always focus on doing the right things for Singapore and Singaporeans.”