1992 Marine Parade By-election

A by-election was held in the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency in Singapore on 19 December 1992. It was called by Goh Chok Tong, who was the MP of the Marine Parade division and had become prime minister the previous year. He had decided to hold a by-election in his own constituency to get people of "ministerial calibre" to join the government under the People's Action Party (PAP).

This was the first and only time that a Singaporean prime minister had vacated their own constituency to stand for a by-election, thereby producing a risk of Goh losing the premiership in under two years in the event he lost the by-election. On nomination day, four political parties including the PAP was set to contest in the by-election; it was the first time in any election a multi-cornered contest occurred inside a Group Representation Constituency.

On polling day, the PAP team of four were re-elected as the MPs for Marine Parade GRC with almost 73% of the votes against three opposition parties.

Background

At the time of this by-election, both deputy prime ministers, Ong Teng Cheong and Lee Hsien Loong, were suffering from cancer. Goh decided to hold a by-election in a safe constituency with the best chances of winning for "political self-renewal" to get people of "ministerial calibre" to join the government under PAP. While Goh, Othman bin Haron Eusofe and Matthias Yao were running again in the same constituency, Lim Chee Onn was replaced with Teo Chee Hean, the former chief of the Singapore navy, for the by-election. Similarly, Singapore Democratic Party, then the largest opposition party, also introduced a widely-charismatic National University of Singapore psychology lecturer Chee Soon Juan who led his team into the election.

At the 1991 general election, Goh promised to hold a by-election in 12 to 18 months' time to allow Workers’ Party secretary-general J. B. Jeyaretnam, to contest a seat in parliament. Jeyaretnam was unable to contest in that election at the time while serving a five-year parliamentary ban which expired two months later. However, the party ultimately did not participate as one candidate turned up late on nominations on 9 December.

Results

Aftermath

Following the by-election, Chee Soon Juan had received acclaim in public interest towards their supporters of Singapore Democratic Party, but on the following year, a party dispute ensued between him and Chiam See Tong; Chiam was expelled from the party's CEC but won a lawsuit to retain his Potong Pasir SMC seat and his position on procedure grounds, which lead to the formation of Singapore People's Party. Chee then became the party's Secretary-General till this day, though the party were unsuccessful on winning seats in subsequent attempts, including MacPherson SMC where he publicly challenged Matthias Yao in the next election.

The PAP's team was re-sworn in Parliament a month later on 18 January 1993; Goh would continue to hold his premiership until 2004 and remained as MP for Marine Parade until his retirement in 2020. The last MP in the team to retire is Teo Chee Hean, who would retire from politics in 2025.

The Marine Parade seat did not receive any challenge from the oppositions after the by-election until 19 years later in 2011 where the National Solidarity Party challenged there. Similarly, a multi-cornered contest inside a Group Representation Constituency would not occur again until 28 years later in the 2020 election, where both Singapore Democratic Alliance (another party/coalition created by Chiam) and the new party, Peoples Voice, challenged Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, which coincidentally, the PAP team also consist of Teo. The next by-election where SDP would be involved with was in 2016, with Chee facing against Murali Pillai in the seat of Bukit Batok SMC.

A similar four-cornered contest in a Group Representation Constituency would occur again 33 years later in the 2025 election where PAP, WP, NSP and the new People's Power Party challenged Tampines GRC, and just like the 1992 by-election and the 2013 Punggol East by-election (the other instance of a four-cornered by-election contest), the two smaller parties (NSP and PPP in this case) had also forfeited their election deposits.

References

{{Singapore elections

1992
1992 elections in Asia
1992 in Singapore
December 1992 in Asia