SINGAPORE, July 11 — It was billed as one of the key electoral contests to watch this General Election (GE), with the surprise deployment of the ruling party’s heavyweight Heng Swee Keat raising the stakes of the race for East Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC).

In the end, the People’s Action Party (PAP) prevailed over the Workers’ Party (WP), getting 53.41 per cent of the vote. 

The WP team, which included social media darling Nicole Seah, won 46.59 per cent of the vote — its strongest showing in the GRC since 2006. 

Heng, 59, PAP’s first assistant secretray-general who is poised to become Singapore’s next prime minister, led his team to victory after leaving his Tampines stronghold of nine years. Rounding up his team are Dr Maliki Osman, 54; Jessica Tan, 54; Cheryl Chan, 44; and new candidate Tan Kiat How, 43.

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WP’s team comprises Seah, 33; Dylan Ng, 44; Kenneth Foo, 43; Terence Tan, 49; and new candidate Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim, 54.

Speaking on Facebook Live after the official results were announced early today, Heng thanked voters for their trust and support.

“With your mandate we are determined to serve u better and to emerge stronger from this global pandemic crisis,” he said.

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“We will reach out to better understand your concerns and aspirations, and work together with you to realise our East Coast plan, to build a more vibrant, caring and green community.”

He also thanked the PAP activists for their hard work and to the WP team “for giving us a strong contest”.

Seah and her WP teammates also thanked voters on Facebook Live.

“We went into this knowing that it was going to be a tough fight, and we gave it our best, and we gave it our all for all of you,” she said. 

“The votes and the encouragement that we received showed us that a very large part of East Coast GRC voters do want to see more fairness in our political system.”

Buzz had been building in the run-up to the polls in East Coast GRC, which has been the scene of keen electoral tugs-of-war between PAP and its main political rival WP in the past few GEs.

In GE2011, PAP beat WP in East Coast GRC with 54.83 per cent of the vote and the again in 2015 with 60.73 per cent of the vote. On both occasions though, the PAP’s team there received the lowest share of votes among all the GRCs that the ruling party won. 

The electoral boundaries for East Coast GRC span areas such as Bedok, Changi-Simei, Kampong Chai Chee, Siglap and the offshore island of Pulau Ubin. This year, the five-member GRC absorbed the Fengshan ward again after it was drawn out from the constituency as a single seat in GE2015. — TODAY