GE2025: PAP retains Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC with no contest; first walkover since 2011 (2025)

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SINGAPORE – In an unexpected turn of events, the PAP won its first constituency at the 2025 General Election when it stood uncontested for the five-member Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC on April 23.

The PAP team was expected to be challenged by a team from WP, which had contested Marine Parade GRC in 2020 and garnered 42.26 per cent of the vote, losing to PAP’s 57.74 per cent.

Minister of State for National Development and Home Affairs Faishal Ibrahim, Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng, former MacPherson MP Tin Pei Ling, and PAP new faces Diana Pang and Goh Pei Ming will be part of Singapore’s 15th Parliament.

This is the first walkover at a general election since 2011, when a PAP team for Tanjong Pagar GRC stood uncontested.

Signs that the WP would not be contesting emerged on April 23 morning at the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council Hougang Office, when reporters from The Straits Times heard WP supporters talking among themselves that the party would not contest Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC.

The non-contest was confirmed at Kong Hwa School – the nomination centre for Marine Parade-Braddell Heights – when no team from the WP showed up by 12pm to register as candidates for the election.

At about 11.20am – 40 minutes before the deadline for candidates to file their nomination papers – Mr Goh showed up at Kong Hwa instead, without the rest of the PAP team for the constituency.

Mr Goh, 43, had been seen at walkabouts in East Coast GRC prior to Nomination Day.

About five minutes later, four PAP candidates – Associate Professor Faishal, Mr Seah, Ms Tin and Ms Pang – walked into the centre together, without Dr Tan See Leng, who had been slated to lead the team into the election. Dr Tan was spotted earlier in the morning at the PAP’s Mountbatten branch office, where the party’s candidates for Marine Parade-Braddell Heights had gathered.

Dr Tan was later seen at the nomination centre for Chua Chu Kang GRC, and he is part of the PAP’s team contesting the constituency.

Speaking after the PAP’s victory was confirmed, Mr Seah, 63, said Dr Tan “is a good doctor, but also a good soldier and a good leader, and he goes where he is asked”.

“For all of us, we are here to serve. So, where the party needs us – wherever, whichever constituency – we will be there,” he added.

“Obviously today, I think Dr Tan got a call, and he has gone to a new place,” he said, adding that Dr Tan was at Mountbatten earlier in the day as he had been part of the team, and was there to “brief us, motivate us and share with us what his plans were”.

Asked if he was surprised by the non-contest, Mr Seah said: “Yes, because it has been some time since this place had a walkover.” The last walkover there was in 2006.

“But walkover or not, our heart and our mission, and our goals remain unchanged – which is to do our best and serve, to make lives better for residents,” said Mr Seah, who has served four terms in Parliament as a Marine Parade GRC MP.

Ms Tin, 41, who is entering her fourth term in Parliament and has served in MacPherson since 2011, said:“Precisely because it is a walkover, we are now doubly committed, because we know that this is not something to be taken for granted.

“So, all the more we have to work hard to earn the trust and support of our residents in the next five years.”

In a Facebook post, Dr Tan said it was difficult to leave Marine Parade. “But this election is bigger than myself,” he wrote. Residents will be in the good hands of the PAP team who will carry on the work set out in the constituency’s masterplan, he added.

Since the 2020 election, WP members and volunteers have continued to walk the ground, with one of the party’s candidates for Marine Parade at that election – Mr Nathaniel Koh – posting on social media about an April 19 walkabout at Marine Parade Central Market and Food Centre.

In a Facebook post on April 23, WP chief Pritam Singh said that not contesting Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC was “a very difficult decision for us”.

“As a small opposition party, we are constantly faced with difficult choices about where and how best to deploy our limited resources, particularly after electoral boundaries are redrawn,” he wrote.

“We have determined that in order to continue fighting for the principles and changes we all believe in, and to give our candidates the best chance of electoral success, the party must focus its best efforts this GE on a smaller number of constituencies than we would have hoped to contest,” Mr Singh added.

It was confirmed on April 23 that the WP will field 26 candidates across eight constituencies – Aljunied GRC, East Coast GRC, Punggol GRC, Sengkang GRC, Tampines GRC, and the single seats in Hougang, Jalan Kayu and Tampines Changkat.

Mr Singh, who noted that the WP had contested Marine Parade GRC in 2015 and 2020, said that his party will resume outreach in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights after the election.

Ms Pang, 51, a long-time PAP volunteer in East Coast, said: “Be it an election or no election, my heart for the people will always stand. So, with heart and action, that is what I stand for. I will still fight for my people, I will still work for them, regardless of who they are, as long as they are my constituents.”

Mr Goh, a former brigadier-general, said he is not new to the area, although he is new to the team.

“Up to the recent change in (electoral) boundaries, actually, I am a Marine Parade resident,” said Mr Goh.

“I grew up in East Coast, I served there for the last 17 years as a grassroots leader, and therefore I do know the east area very, very well,” he said, adding that he frequents areas around Parkway Parade.

He said his priority is to get to know residents, and that he is committed to “hit the ground running, to use my public service experience, my community experience, to be able to make a difference to our residents here”.

Prof Faishal, 56, who is entering his fifth term in Parliament, noted that Mr Seah and Ms Tin are experienced campaigners, and that the team will spend the coming days supporting PAP’s candidates contesting other constituencies.

The newly renamed Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC is formed from parts of Marine Parade GRC, MacPherson SMC, Mountbatten SMC and Potong Pasir SMC.

Marine Parade GRC was contested at three consecutive elections, in 2011, 2015 and 2020.

• Additional reporting by Clement Yong, Gabrielle Chan, Shermaine Ang and Wong Pei Ting

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