Aljunied GRC

The Aljunied Group Representation Constituency is a five-member group representation constituency (GRC) in the north-eastern and eastern region of Singapore. It consists of a large part of Hougang (excluding Hougang SMC), Paya Lebar, Serangoon Gardens, the southern half of Serangoon North as well as a portion of Bedok. The GRC consists of five divisions: Eunos, Bedok Reservoir-Punggol, Kaki Bukit, Serangoon and Paya Lebar. The current Members of Parliament are Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim, Gerald Giam, Fadli Fawzi and Kenneth Tiong from the Workers' Party (WP).

History

Creation

Aljunied GRC was formed in 1988 and was won by the People's Action Party (PAP) against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) with 56.33% of the votes to 43.67%. It was uncontested in 1991, and was contested again in 1997 by the SDP with a much poorer result as compared to 1988, garnering only 32.98% of the votes against 67.02% from the PAP. It was uncontested once more in 2001. In 2006, the Workers' Party (WP) began contesting in the area, garnering 43.91% of the votes to the PAP's 56.09%.

Opposition breakthrough

In 2011, party leader Low Thia Khiang, who had left his seat at Hougang SMC, led a WP team to contest in Aljunied GRC. They made a historic breakthrough when the WP team won the election for the GRC with 54.72% of the votes to the PAP's 45.28%, making it the first GRC to be won by an opposition party since the introduction of the GRC system in 1988.

In 2015, a PAP team led by Yeo Guat Kwang contested the constituency. As part of a national swing towards the PAP due to SG50 and only a few months after the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the WP almost lost the division back to the PAP. During the vote counting, a recount was requested by the PAP team as the difference in votes between the two teams was less than two per cent of the total valid votes cast. Following the recount, Aljunied GRC's electoral result was declared last at 3.10am the following morning with WP ultimately retaining the constituency by a narrow margin of just 1.9%, or a majority of 2,612.

In 2020, Low and Chen Show Mao declined to run for re-election. Led by WP's new party leader Pritam Singh, WP retained the GRC with 59.95% of the vote, a 9% swing in their favour from the previous election.

MP resignation

In July 2023, a video surfaced that allegedly showed the MP for the Serangoon ward Leon Perera holding hands intimately with fellow WP member Nicole Seah. On 19 July, WP secretary-general Singh revealed that Perera and Seah began an affair some time after the 2020 general elections, which had ended before the video surfaced. Perera resigned from Parliament and the WP on the same day while Seah had already done so the previous day. After Perera's resignation, the workload for Serangoon was distributed among the other MPs in Aljunied GRC.

In August 2024, the PAP appointed Jagathishwaran Rajo and Kenny Sim to replace Chua Eng Leong and Alex Yeo respectively as the chairs of the Eunos and Paya Lebar PAP branches. The PAP again replaced three of its five Aljunied branch chairpersons in February 2025 and appointed Faisal Abdul Aziz, Daniel Liu and Adrian Ang to replaced outgoing branch chairpersons Kenny Sim, Shamsul Kamar and Victor Lye.

On 11 March 2025, the Elections Department updated the electoral divisions for the 2025 Singaporean general election. Some polling districts to the east of Bedok Reservoir were absorbed by Tampines West ward of Tampines GRC. The number of MPs that the GRC elects remained at five. This was the first time that a non-PAP and opposition-held constituency had its boundaries redrawn, albeit slightly. Despite a national swing towards the PAP, the WP ended up retaining the GRC with a similar vote share to that of 2020.

2025 General Election

Prior to the 2025 general election, the WP also announced 2 new candidates that Fadli Fawzi, once contested in Marine Parade GRC and new face Kenneth Tiong would be contesting the GRC alongside the incumbent MPs, Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim and Gerald Giam. Despite a national swing towards the PAP, the WP ended up retaining the GRC with 59.71% of the vote.

Members of Parliament

Electoral results

Elections in 1980s

Elections in 1990s

Elections in 2000s

Elections in 2010s

Elections in 2020s

See also

* Aljunied SMC

References

{{Constituencies of Singapore

Singaporean electoral divisions
Bedok
Hougang
Paya Lebar
Serangoon
Tampines