Cengkaman Politik Singapura telah dijinakan

بسم الله الر حمن الر حيم

SINGAPURA  8 Mei - Parti pembangkang Singapura berjaya memenangi satu Perwakilan Kumpulan Kawasan Pilihan Raya (GRC) buat pertama kali dengan merampas lima kerusi dalam satu saingan sengit kawasan panas, menurut pegawai pilihan raya.

Parti Pekerja (WP) memenangi 54.71 peratus undi di daerah tumpuan, Aljunied berbanding parti pemerintah, Parti Tindakan Rakyat (PAP) yang diketuai oleh Menteri Luar, George Yeo yang bakal meninggalkan Kabinet akibat kekalahan berkenaan.

“Ini merupakan petanda politik dalam Singapura moden. Keberanian anda berjaya memecahkan tembok untuk generasi masa depan,” kata Setiausaha Agung WP, Low Thia Khiang yang mengetuai kejayaan lima kerusi partinya itu

Singapore's ruling party has won an overwhelming parliamentary majority in elections, but the opposition has made historic gains.

The Elections Department said early Sunday that partial results show the People's Action Party (PAP) winning at least 75 of 87 seats in parliament. The opposition Workers Party won six seats, the most since independence in 1965.

The Singapore opposition more than doubling its presence in the previous parliament, in which the ruling party controlled 82 of 84 seats in the previous parliament.

The Straits Times newspaper quoted a PAP candidate as saying that the most hotly contested district, Aljunied, had fallen to the opposition Workers' Party.

The PAP has dominated Singapore politics for 52 years and the opposition has never won a group constituency.

Voting ended at 8pm local time (12:00 GMT) on Saturday without any major incidents and results were expected to start coming in within a few hours.

This year the opposition contested 82 of 87 seats in parliament, the most ever, with the PAP returned unopposed from one five-seat constituency. In 2006, just over half the seats were contested.

Several complaints

The elections department said an opposition party had made several complaints, including an allegation that a PAP candidate had updated her Facebook page on Friday, contravening a 24-hour "cooling-off" period before the start of polls when parties were not allowed to campaign.

"We had responded to National Solidarity Party that they may wish to lodge a police report," a spokesperson for the department said.

By 5pm, 1.85 million Singaporeans, or 83.5 per cent of eligible voters, had cast their votes, the department said in a separate statement.

Voting is compulsory in Singapore, a former British colony which in 1965 became a republic after breaking up with neighbouring Malaysia.

Six opposition parties contested the monopoly of PAP, which has been taken aback by the depth of voter resentment against it.

In a rare admission of concern, Lee, the prime minister, apologised for policy mistakes and blunders since the last poll, including the 2008 escape of a suspected "terrorist", failure to prevent floods in 2010, high home prices and crowded metro trains.

"We're trying our best on your behalf. And if we didn't quite get it right, I'm sorry but we will try and do better the next time," he said during the campaign.