What Factors Help the Pap Regain Its Electoral Dominance in the 2015 General Election?

Question: What factors help the PAP regain its electoral dominance in the 2015 General Election?

The first key factor for PAP’s regain in electoral dominance can be attributed to the party’s recalibration of its strategies after GE2011 to gain stronger support from the electorate. We can reconstruct the key moves in PAP’s playbook if we take a step back to recall its actions over the past 4 years prior to the General Election 2015 (GE2015).    

One of the key move as part of its strategy is to take emergency steps to remedy the pain points from GE2011. The three hot-button issues that emerged from the GE2011 are namely, housing, immigration and transport (Koh T, 2015). In bid to ensure a more affordable housing for all, the government beefed up its supply of Build to Order (BTO) flats by more than 25,000 annually between 2011 to 2013, to ensure more affordable housing choices for young Singaporean couples (Tay K, 2015).  Moreover, there were a slew of property cooling measures erected during this period as well within the residential property market to clamp down on speculations which helped reduce prices of the exuberant property market (MAS, 2013). On the immigration front, the government has also implemented an array of measures to stiffen the foreign inflow into the country. This is done via heightening of foreign worker levies, dependency ratio ceilings as well as stricter criteria for S Pass and Employment Pass holders (Tay K, 2015). Lastly, on the aspect of transport, there have been significant improvements by the government to the existing transport systems, despite service disruptions still occurring occasionally.  Since 2011, both the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the SMRT Corporation have embarked on a billion-dollar, multi-year program to upgrade both North-South and East-West lines (Tay K, 2015). Moreover, in terms of existing bus systems, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) has introduced the Bus Service Enhancement Program (BSEP) in 2012, which aims to provide better connectivity, shorter waiting times and more comfortable journeys for commuters. Statistics have proven the effectiveness of this program with crowding decreasing by more than 90% since 2011, shorter waiting times during peak hours and 41 enhanced bus routes that bring commuters closer to existing stations (MOT, 2015). Evidently, PAP has brought relief to the important concerns raised from GE2011. As a result, this key move may have triggered the electorate to reward the PAP for doing their best to not merely listen but also responding to their concerns.

Another aspect of PAP’s recalibrated strategy was the attempt to connect better with the electorate of different demographics.  In order to win the hearts of the senior citizens also known as the Silver Votes, the government has push forth a slew of incentive packages post GE2011 to target this group by showing them that the government cares for them. One good example is the launch of Pioneer Generation Package in 2014, which targeted approximately 450,000 older Singaporeans aged 65 and above. This package includes benefit schemes ranging from subsidies for outpatient care, lower premiums for MediShield Life as well as the launch of Pioneer Generation Disability Assistance Scheme (Pioneers, 2016). On the other hand, the PAP has also sought to gain greater support from younger voters by being more pro-active on social media, which is a platform that is highly popular among the younger generation today. This is done by having individual politicians such as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, government agencies and the party themselves to build up their own social media capacity (George C, 2015). Last, but not least, the incumbent has also made greater efforts to engage the ground in order to connect with the general public. One good example to demonstrate this is through the undertaking of Our Singapore Conversation project in 2013. This project reached out to over 46,000 Singaporeans from all walks of life through focus groups to better understand their concerns and how the government can effectively address them (Ng JY, 2013). As such, the attempt to better connect with the electorate, as part of its revamped strategy may also help explain for the shift in votes seen in GE2015.