The 2020 general election is over.

The nine days of campaigning were hectic, and Singaporeans were naturally invested in the daily happenings.

To get an idea of what the public was interested in during the election, we compiled this (non-exhaustive) list of some of the most popular GE2020 trends, courtesy of Google Trends.

Warm the cockles of my heart

Who can forget this iconic phrase from the Workers' Party (WP)'s Jamus Lim, during the Mediacorp political debates?

While Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan entered the debate as the most prominent individual, Lim was the one who captured the hearts of the audience with his standout performance.

Search interest for the phrase increased right after the political debates, although it surged to its peak towards the latter portion of the campaigning period.

And Lim likely knows how viral the phrase has become, given how he cheekily repeated it during his thank-you speech, after narrowly edging out the PAP team in Sengkang GRC on July 10.

10 million population

During the same political debate, another issue went viral: 10 million population.

The leader of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Chee Soon Juan challenged Vivian to state categorically whether the PAP wished to raise Singapore's population to 10 million or not, adding that Singaporeans are "deadly worried" about the issue.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat later publicly clarified his 2019 remarks, stating that he did not say that Singapore should plan to increase its population to 10 million people.

Search interest for this peaked in the days after the debate, although it was clear that the public lost interest in the issue by the second half of the campaigning period.

POFMA

Several correction orders from the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Office were issued during the election, and it is clear that the public noticed.

Peoples Voice leader Lim Tean, SDP and The Online Citizen (TOC) were among the few individuals or organisations that were issued POFMA correction orders during this time.

While search interest for POFMA has always been consistent even outside of the election, it peaked after July 4.

East Coast plan

On Nomination Day (June 30), the PAP revealed in a surprise move that Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat would run in East Coast GRC.

In his thank-you speech, Heng assured East Coast residents that the team had a plan for them: the famed "East Coast plan".

Members of the public were clearly intrigued by the prospect of such a plan, and search interest surged immediately after Heng's announcement.

The next day, on July 1, the PAP East Coast team elaborated on the plan, which became known as "Together, We Care @ East Coast".

While the East Coast plan dominated the minds of the public initially, it was clear by the latter half of the election period that other issues had displaced it.

Hypebeast

The Progress Singapore Party (PSP)'s Tan Cheng Bock gained a huge fan base among younger voters during the election, due to his rapidly growing social media presence.

In particular, the 80-year-old termed himself a "hypebeast" multiple times, something which made him really popular among the younger crowd.

Indeed, the term surged to popularity on Google Trends at the start of the election, and interest remained till the very end.

Tan may have narrowly lost West Coast GRC, but at least he is a "hype beast person".

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCCU1T5ne3C/

Top image via Tan Cheng Bock/FB and CNA's YouTube channel.