1992 Marine Parade by-election
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A parliamentary by-election was held in the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency in Singapore on 19 December 1992. It was called by Goh Chok Tong, who was the MP of the Marine Parade division and had become prime minister the previous year. He had decided to hold a by-election in his own constituency to get people of "ministerial calibre" to join the government under the People's Action Party (PAP).
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19 December 1992
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| Registered | 73,986 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 68,436 (92.50%) 1.07% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This was the first and only time that a Singaporean prime minister had vacated their own constituency to stand for a by-election, thereby producing a risk of Goh losing the premiership in under two years in the event he lost the by-election. On nomination day, four political parties including the PAP was set to contest in the by-election; it was the first time in any election a multi-cornered contest occurred inside a Group Representation Constituency (GRC).[1][2]
On polling day, the PAP team of four were re-elected as the MPs for Marine Parade GRC with almost 73% of the votes against three opposition parties.
Background
At the time of this by-election, both deputy prime ministers, Ong Teng Cheong and Lee Hsien Loong, were suffering from cancer. Goh decided to hold a by-election in his own constituency for "political self-renewal" and to get people of "ministerial calibre" to join the government under the PAP. While Goh, Othman bin Haron Eusofe and Matthias Yao were running again in the same constituency, Lim Chee Onn was replaced with Teo Chee Hean, the former chief of the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), for the by-election.[3] Similarly, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), then the largest opposition party with three seats in Parliament, also introduced a charismatic National University of Singapore (NUS) psychology lecturer Chee Soon Juan who led his team into the election.[4]
At the 1991 general election, Goh promised to hold a by-election in 12 to 18 months' time to allow Workers' Party (WP) secretary-general, J. B. Jeyaretnam, to contest a seat in parliament as an act of political goodwill. Jeyaretnam was unable to contest in that general election at the time as his five-year parliamentary ban was to expire two months after.[5][6][7][8][9] However, the party failed to participate as one candidate turned up late on nomination day on 9 December.[10][11]
Candidates
On 9 December 1992, the four political parties were nominated, as follows:
| Candidates | Background |
|---|---|
| Goh Chok Tong Othman bin Haron Eusofe Teo Chee Hean Matthias Yao |
The team from the People's Action Party which was led by Prime Minister Goh, as well as the two incumbent MPs Othman and Yao. Lim Chee Onn did not stand for the by-election, and was replaced by debuting candidate Teo Chee Hean, a 37-year-old reservist commodore of the Republic of Singapore Navy. |
| Chee Soon Juan Low Yong Nguan Ashleigh Seow Mohamed Shariff bin Yahya |
The team from the Singapore Democratic Party. This was Chee's electoral debut, while the other had contested in prior elections before. Low was also a former PAP MP in Crawford Constituency in the 1968 election before retiring a term later, then joined SDP sometime before the 1988 elections. |
| Sarry bin Hassan Ken Sen Tan Chee Kian Paul Yong Choon Poh |
The team from the National Solidarity Party. Yong made its debut in this by-election, while the rest were previously contested candidates. |
| Lim Teong Howe Suib bin Abdul Rahman Theng Chin Eng Yen Kim Khooi |
The team from the Singapore Justice Party, who also contested Marine Parade GRC in the preceding 1991 general election, which team also consist of Suib and Theng. Yen also contested as an independent candidate for Mountbatten SMC in the same election, while Lim made its debut this by-election. |
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAP | Goh Chok Tong Othman bin Haron Eusofe Teo Chee Hean Matthias Yao |
48,965 | 72.94 | 4.31 | |
| SDP | Chee Soon Juan Low Yong Nguan Mohamed Shariff bin Yahya Ashleigh Seow |
16,447 | 24.5 | N/A | |
| NSP | Ken Sen Tan Chee Kian Sarry bin Hassan Yong Choon Poh |
950 | 1.42 | N/A | |
| SJP | Theng Chin Eng Yen Kim Khooi Suib bin Abdul Rahman Lim Teong Howe |
764 | 1.14 | 21.61 | |
| Majority | 30,804 | 48.44 | 6.06 | ||
| Turnout | 68,436 | 92.5 | 1.1 | ||
| PAP hold | Swing | 4.3 |
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Aftermath and legacy
Following the by-election, Chee Soon Juan had received acclaim in public interest towards their supporters of Singapore Democratic Party, but on the following year, a party dispute ensued between him and Chiam See Tong; Chiam was expelled from the party's CEC but won a lawsuit to retain his Potong Pasir SMC seat and his position on procedure grounds, which lead to the formation of Singapore People's Party (SPP) in 1994;[13][14][15] Chiam also later formed the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) in 2001 along with the two teams who also contested the by-election: the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and Singapore Justice Party (SJP), as well as Singapore Malay National Organisation (PKMS). However, the SDA was left with PKMS and SJP after the NSP later left the alliance in 2007,[16] followed by SPP in 2010.[17][18] In SDP, Chee then became the party's Secretary-General till this day, though the party were unsuccessful on winning seats in subsequent attempts, including MacPherson SMC where he publicly challenged Matthias Yao in the next election.[19][20]
The PAP's team was re-sworn in Parliament a month later on 18 January 1993; Goh would continue to hold his premiership until 2004 and remained as MP for Marine Parade until his retirement in 2020.[21] The last MP in the team to retire is Teo Chee Hean, who would retire from politics in 2025.[22][23]
Subsequent elections
Marine Parade's next electoral contest after the by-election would be in 2011, 19 years later, where the National Solidarity Party challenged there.[24] Similarly, the next by-election where SDP would be involved with was in 2016, with Chee facing against Murali Pillai in the seat of Bukit Batok SMC.[25][26]
The WP would eventually contest Marine Parade GRC in 2015, 23 years later, which was led by former Non-constituency Member of Parliament Yee Jenn Jong, who previously contested Joo Chiat SMC in 2011, which was redrawn back into Marine Parade GRC in that election.[27] However, they did not contest in the 2025 election citing limitation of resources and the extensive boundary changes of the constituency (among which Joo Chiat was redrawn into East Coast GRC), which resulted in Marine Parade GRC, now Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, to become uncontested for the first time since 2006.[28][29][30]
A multi-cornered contest inside a Group Representation Constituency would not occur again until 28 years later in the 2020 election, where a three-way race unfolded in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC between the PAP, whose team coincidentally included Teo, the SDA, and the new Peoples Voice.[1][2] A similar four-cornered contest in a Group Representation Constituency would occur again 33 years later in the 2025 election where PAP, WP, NSP and the new People's Power Party (PPP) challenged Tampines GRC,[31] and just like the 1992 by-election and the 2013 Punggol East by-election (the other instance of a four-cornered by-election contest),[32][33] the two smaller parties (NSP and PPP in this case)[34] had also forfeited their election deposits.[35]