This by-election was the result of the expulsion of Yaw Shin Leong, MP for Hougang SMC, from WP. Yaw also lost his position as WP treasurer in their Central Executive Committee. Under Article 46(2)(b) of the
Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, an MP's Parliamentary seat falls vacant if the MP is expelled from the party under whose banner he or she stood for election. The last MP to have been expelled from his party was
Chiam See Tong, who was ousted from the
Singapore Democratic Party in 1993, but reinstated in December the same year after a ruling by the
High Court. At a media conference on 15 February 2012, WP announced the expulsion of Yaw. According to the party chairman
Sylvia Lim, she said that Yaw has been accused of several indiscretions in his private life while being asked many times to come forward and explain himself to the party but he did not do so, resulting in him committing a party misconduct and lost faith, trust and expectations of the party and the residents of the Hougang SMC. The announcement came after weeks of speculation and rumours that Yaw had an alleged extramarital affair with a fellow party member. Within 30 minutes of 20:37, news reports detailed the mixed reactions among Hougang residents to Yaw Shin Leong's expulsion,
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's comment that there is no fixed time within which a by-election must be called, and PAP Chairman
Khaw Boon Wan's quote that Hougang voters have been misled by the WP. On 17 February 2012, the Clerk of the Parliament gave Yaw ten days to reply to the expulsion, but two days later, he wrote a letter that he chose not to appeal against the party's decision; the
Speaker Michael Palmer, then announced the vacancy of the seat as of the date of the expulsion. In the days following the announcement, a war of words ensued between
Aljunied GRC MP
Low Thia Khiang, former MP
Ho Kah Leong and government press secretary Foo Kok Jwee in the letters columns of the
Lianhe Zaobao and
The Straits Times over the degree to which the situation compared to the
last by-election in 1992 and whether or not the expulsion of Yaw was an "abuse of the democratic system" to save the party's integrity. Commentator
Eugene Tan, assistant professor of law at the
Singapore Management University School of Law, discussed how the Parliamentary Elections Act applied to the situation. Tan stated that although it was the President who issued the writ for election, it was the Prime Minister who advised on the matter, and that it was thus Lee who effectively controlled the election date. Tan argued that although the Constitution did not impose a timeframe within which a by-election had to be held, it was not the intent that this should allow elections to be postponed indefinitely. The fact that the Constitution is silent on exactly when by-elections should be called should not be taken as permission not to call them at all. "In short," he wrote, "the 'default' position should be that a by-election should be automatic, although there is no hard and fast rule on the timing." Tan also opined that WP should field as its candidate in the by-election someone not already in Parliament, rather than a Non-constituency MP.
Chee Soon Juan, Secretary-General of the
Singapore Democratic Party, stated that it was his party's "primary concern that Hougang remains in the hands of the opposition", declaring that it would therefore not field a candidate that would split the vote. Other WP MPs had been covering Yaw's former duties in Hougang SMC. Tan argued that this state of affairs should not continue for the projected remaining term of the current Parliament of four and a half years. "[...] the cardinal principle of representation is crucial: A stand-in MP is not the same as an MP for whom the majority had voted. Not calling a by-election would undermine the importance of representation in our maturing parliamentary democracy", he wrote.
Confirmation of by-election On 9 May 2012,
President Tony Tan Keng Yam issued a writ of election for the electoral division of Hougang. Nominations were held on 16 May at
Serangoon Junior College, and polling took place on 26 May. With the confirmation of the by-election, Singapore was set to experience its first such contest in nearly 20 years since the
1992 Marine Parade by-election, marking the longest interval between by-elections in the nation's history. ==Candidates==