GE2025: Zeroing in
This is a We, The Citizens’s GE2025 special issue. While WTC’s special issues are usually only emailed to Milo Peng Funders and are sometimes paywalled, all GE2025 special issues will be made publicly accessible. Please support this work by sharing this newsletter widely and subscribing/tipping if you can!
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Parliament has been dissolved and the writ of election issued. Nomination Day will be on 23 April and Polling Day on 3 May.
It was already intensifying before, but now there’s going to be a deluge of election coverage. (Thoughts and prayers to all the election reporters out there, may your limited sleep be sound and your Red Bulls always cold.) It’s going to be overwhelming and not everything will be useful. It is, for example, of very little use for voters to hear, over and over again, about each candidate’s “humble beginnings”, when what’s really important is their politics, principles and competencies now.
It’s important that We, The Citizens doesn’t add to the noise—when an email drops in your inbox, I want it to be informative, thought-provoking or helpful in some shape or form. GE2025 special issues have already been going out—and you can find all of them here—but now that things are really kicking off I want to try as much as I can to cut through the vacuous statements, distractions and red herrings and not waste anyone’s precious time.
This means that I might ditch the regular schedule during this period: since GE2025 issues go out whenever necessary, I might skip the Saturday morning wraps (or replace it with a special issue!) so I don't overload everyone with emails. This doesn't mean that everything non-GE2025-related will be thrown out the window—We, The Citizens will still report for duty if some important non-election thing needs to be flagged! 🫡
Get educated
If political systems, elections and partisan politics in Singapore are new to you, Academia SG’s election-related resources are a great place to start. They have video explainers and recordings of their excellent webinars, as well as an extensive reading list to sink your teeth into.
Manifestos are crucial to every election: they’re the documents that clearly state each party’s position and platforms on the issues they believe to be most important. Given that Members of Parliament in Singapore usually vote along party lines, these manifestos are likely more important than the personal beliefs of each individual candidate. For example, a candidate’s claims about feeling strongly about human rights might matter little if his party’s manifesto states their intention to retain and defend capital punishment. It’s also good to know what the parties are proposing in their manifestos so you can quiz the candidates in your constituency on them if you get the chance.
To make it easier for everyone to get a sense of each political party’s manifesto, I've put all the manifestos released so far in one database.
Get the low-down on your constituency
Mainstream media newsrooms will be all over the individual constituencies and nitty-gritty of who’s standing where, so I’m not going to try to beat these behemoths at their own game. The Straits Times has this handy page that allows you to look up constituencies and find out who’s intending to contest there, plus other nifty data like demographic breakdowns.
If you'd like some help with evaluating your incumbent MP, Bertha Henson and Cheyenne Yee have put together this worksheet for you to help you think about what your MP has done since the last election. This goes well with CAPE's work on their Parliament Tracker!
Volunteer for political parties
This is a list of political parties who’ve expressed their intention to wade into the fray. Of course, we have to wait for Nomination Day for it to be confirmed if they’re running, and where, but I think we can be more certain of some than others.
With the exception of the PAP behemoth, every party will be struggling during GE2025: campaigning is an expensive, labour-intensive business and they have very little time to do a lot. I’m not recommending that you donate to all of these parties—I wouldn’t give money to some of them myself—but I’ve collated these links so you have the opportunity to look them up and make up your own mind about whether, or how much, you want to support them. In any case, it’s a good thing to experience, at least once, what it’s like to be a polling or counting agent! It’s an opportunity to take a more active and involved role in a key democratic exercise.
National Solidarity Party
Donate | Volunteer
People’s Action Party
I couldn’t find a link to donate to the PAP—let’s be honest, they don’t need your money—but if you want to volunteer you can apparently do it by downloading an app.
People’s Alliance for Reform (a coalition of the People’s Power Party, Democratic Progressive Party, Reform Party and Peoples Voice)
Contact them using via these channels if you’d like to volunteer or donate.
People’s Power Party
Donate | Join the party
Progress Singapore Party
Donate | Volunteer
Red Dot United
Donate | Join the party
Singapore Democratic Alliance
Join
Singapore Democratic Party
Donate | Volunteer
Singapore People’s Party
Donate | Volunteer
Singapore United Party
Check out this Facebook post for information on volunteering or donations.
Workers’ Party
Donate | Volunteer
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