September 13, 12:51 PM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 All photos by Edwin Koo.
It was a surprisingly close battle in Aljunied GRC as the People's Action Party (PAP) team narrowly lost to the Workers' Party 'A' team by just 2,612 votes.
In the end, the WP team retained Aljunied GRC with a 50.95 percent vote share and a drop of 3.75 per cent from GE2011.
1. Aljunied GRC (50.95%) (54.7% in GE 2011) (3.75% drop)
2. Hougang SMC (57.7%) (62.1% in By-Election 2012) (4.4% drop)
3. Punggol East SMC (48.2%) (54.5% in By-Election 2013) (6.2% drop)
Among WP-held wards, Aljunied GRC experienced the smallest swing against them. This is against the backdrop of a 9.2% swing for the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) nation-wide.
Thanks to The Straits Times' solid reporting, we now roughly know the number votes that were garnered in each of the five wards in Aljunied GRC.
For those who do not live in Aljunied GRC, here are the match-ups in each of the five constituencies
Bedok Reservoir: WP Chief Low Thia Khiang vs Victor Lye
Serangoon: WP Chairwoman Sylvia Lim vs PAP MP Yeo Guat Kwang
Paya Lebar: WP MP Chen Show Mao vs Muralidharan Pillai
Eunos: WP MP Pritam Singh vs Chua Eng Leong
Kaki Bukit: WP MP Faisal Abdul Manap vs Shamsul Kamar
Here are 5 things to ponder over in Workers' Party's close shave at Aljunied GRC.
1. WP heavyweights - Chairman Sylvia Lim and MP Chen Show Mao - are rumoured to have lost in their own wards
According to The Straits Times, Serangoon (Lim's ward) and Paya Lebar (Chen's ward) lost by about 300 votes each.
This was a surprise, especially for Lim's Serangoon ward.
In fact, Serangoon was the best performer for WP in the last GE 2011, with the foreign dormitory issue nearby a hot political potato for former Minister Lim Hwee Hua.
Here are two questions for Lim to reflect upon:
1) Did Lim lose votes because she was the face of the Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC)?
2) Did the prominence of MP Yeo Guat Kwang help? Yeo was the PAP candidate for Serangoon. Moreover, he is a former Aljunied GRC MP two GEs ago.
Lim, however, disagreed that AHPETC was an issue. She told the media before the start of Aljunied GRC's Thank You procession yesterday:
[I]f the town council issue were to affect us we would see a bigger swing against us, she said highlighting the difference between the climb in PAP's national vote share and the slide in WP-held constituencies vote share.
2. WP chief - Low Thia Khiang - saved the day at Bedok.
The Straits Times reported that Low "won in Bedok Reservoir by about more than 1,000 votes".
Bedok reservoir was the blue-ribbon seat managed by former Foreign Minister George Yeo.
As an opposition MP since 1991 - in fact, he is on track to overtake Chiam See Tong as the longest-serving opposition MP in 2018- Low definitely know how to forge strong bonds with his residents on the ground.
Workers' Party walkabout at New Upper Changi Road market. 2015/09/09.
#ge2015 #singapore #mothershipsg #singaporeson #edwinkoo
Low's opponent was Victor Lye, a prominent grassroots leader under Yeo who had been volunterring in Aljunied for 16 years.
But he is more famously known online as the potential candidate who distributed the AHPETC flyers in the dead of the night.
Grateful'>
Posted by Victor Lye Thiam Fatt 赖添发 on Friday, March 13, 2015
Lye was also the only PAP Aljunied GRC candidate who got a bit flustered during PAP's well-run GE campaign:
What'>
Posted by Victor Lye Thiam Fatt 赖添发 on Sunday, September 6, 2015
