One woman versus three men

If you live in Singapore you probably already know who won the by-election in Punggol East. I wrote about the by-election here. If you live outside Singapore, you  probably don't care. But here's a post about it anyway!

One woman and three men ran for election.

And the woman won! Decisively too. She won 54.5% (16,038) of the votes . And she's from the opposition party. And she's the one who said:

"I may look pregnant but I'm not."

She made history as the first woman candidate from oppostition to win a single-seat constituency. This chick thrashed the men. She has no huge paper qualifications to boast of. But she is down to earth and is photogenic. This win is huge for the opposition party. HUGE!

One of the male candidates made history as well.

This candidate from SDA (also a opposition party) landed on the history books after having scored the lowest vote share. He received 0.6% of the total votes. This translates to 168 votes. That's right. 168 people voted for him out of 29,832. He lost his election deposit of $14.5k. His loss would have been greater had he held a rally. Instead he "saved money" by doing a live-streaming broadcast. Despite the loss and humiliation (my words), he said: (via Straits Times)

"The results have not dampened me, nor the SDA. It only means we have to fight harder, and work harder when the next contest comes."

I always admire people who won't give up. But 0.6%? It would be silly to come back next time and contest again in the same ward.

This candidate from Reform Party received 1.2% (353) of the votes. He also lost his election deposit. I'm surprised he received so many votes. I really thought he would do worse than the SDA guy as he's never contested in this ward before. I mean, the SDA guy ran for election at the ward in the last election. Despite the loss, he said: (via Straits Times)

"It does not matter how many deposits we lost. It's about democracy."

Interestingly, the number of rejected votes which numbered 417 is more than what each of the top two losers got.

The ruling party's guy only received 43.7% (12,856) of the votes. Honestly, I was shocked. I'm sure the ruling party is shocked. Like what the hell happened? What? The "Son of Punggol" (a Straits Times tagline) is not good enough for Punggol East? Why didn't he win? Are Punggol East residents that dissatisfied with the ruling party? Should he have toned down on his humble background? Or is it because of his high forehead? I personally would have voted for him if he's a Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. (He's a colorectal doctor) But that's only because my own beloved ENT doctor has left public service and gone into private practice (sniff, sniff) which means he's now too expensive for me. But I would really prefer it if doctors remain doctors and not run for office because almost anyone can be a politician but how many can be doctors?