Sengkang West was seen by many as a GE2011 rematch between the two candidates from PAP and WP.

It’s official, Sengkang West is still Lam Pin Min’s. The voters have spoken, with Lam taking home 62.11% of the vote.

Here’s a recap of the candidates:

PAP

Name: Lam Pin Min

Age: 46

Occupation: Minister of State in the Ministry of Health

Terms in Parliament: 2

WP

Name: Koh Choong Yong

Age: 42

Occupation: Senior Software Engineer at Ruckus Wireless

Terms in Parliament: 0. This was the second time that he contested for Sengkang West

What the outcome means

PAP

GE2015: 62.11%

GE2011: 58.11%

WP

GE2015: 37.9%

GE2011: 41.89%

The mystery is solved, the 40 over per cent that did not vote the previous elections, because many of the BTO developments were not completed, supports the PAP. However, Lam won by only small majority, probably because of the Sengkang columbarium saga that has caused much displeasure amongst his residents.

What was said? 

Old rivals competed again and here are their more notable quotes.

PAP's Lam Min Pin

He promised residents: New bus services, a double-carriage LRT (in 2016), large mega childcare centre in Fernvale (capacity of up to 500 students), integrated community facility (which includes a hawker centre, wet market and childcare services).

WP's Koh Choong Yong

Questioning Lam’s promises to residents:

My answer to the residents is, you can ask Dr Lam these two questions if you see him. First question: the people are expecting a hawker center and a wet market there. The building is called an “Integrated Community Facility”, so I asked the resident to ask Dr Lam, can you call a spade a spade? If it is a wet market, call it a wet market. Don’t call it an Intergrated Community Facility, and end up building a community center there. The second question to ask Dr Lam: is it a government project? And will the decision to build it be based on their votes?

Reason why he did not speak up on the columbarium saga:

My answer is: I respected the choices of the people then, I respected their vote, and so the elected MP should deal with the issue because the people then elected him to represent then. I was then, not elected to represent them so I did not add fuel to the fire when the going gets (sic) tough for the elected MP.

On why he champions more help for people with special needs:

… I have a 7-year-old boy who is a special needs child. My boy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and global development delay from about 12 months old. Today, he still has no speech, cannot walk independently, and he still cannot call me papa. He is largely dependent on my wife, his full-time 24-hour caregiver, for almost all of his daily activities. But he is a cheerful boy and is mostly happy.