Results are out

photo by cheesecak.
seen on sg_snapshots

So the results are out. The final outcome remains somewhat the same from before, but the process, the road travelled in the past few weeks – definitely a milestone in the history of Singapore politics.

I was at a pub when the election results were being announced. Yeah, in a pub. It’s weird on its own seeing everyone downing beer, while mostly rooting for the opposition. It didn’t matter what opposition party was running, or if it was even their constituency. Politics has suddenly become as entertaining as soccer. You could hear the sounds of groanings and that of cheers with each announcement.

Comparing how the media reports politics in Singapore and the US, I gotta say that the presentation of election results on our TV really pales in comparison to that of the US. I can still remember the recent US Presidential election. They had experts and commentors, lots of diagrams, charts, predictions, analysis, live updates of the votes being counted – the % from the votes that have been counted, and how many uncounted votes remaining. Way before they have even finished counting the votes of a state, most stations were already predicting who would win for that state, and quite accurately at that.

The impression I got, sitting in the pub, was that most didn’t even know what was the possible total votes for each constituency. Thus, when a big number was announced for a GRC like Aljunied, everyone still had their hopes that WP would win. Sad to say, it didn’t happen. When Low and Chiam retained their seats, the whole pub resounded with loud cheers. It’s almost like Singapore just scored a goal in the Malaysian Cup or something.

I didn’t get to vote this time round. Maybe I will get to vote some day. Someone asked me today, what percentage of parliment should consist of those not belonging to PAP. My answer was at least 30%. After all, from all the contested zones, it showed clearly that at least 30% of its residents rooted for whatever party that was running against PAP, if not more.