SINGAPORE HANSARD DEB 4 MARCH 2010, VOL 86, COLS 3031-3032 Electoral Boundaries Review Committee Report

Ms Sylvia Lim (Non-Constituency Member): Sir, in countries like the UK, electoral boundary revisions are carried by an independent Boundary Commission under the charge of a High Court Judge. Proposed boundary changes are also open to public scrutiny and objection. In Singapore, however, the boundary revisions are done by a Committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, reporting to the Prime Minister. Sir, despite my belief that the PMO should not be in charge of boundary review, the focus of my cut is how the current process may be improved for transparency and accountability. I would like to touch on two points. First, the timing of the release of the report. Second, the contents of the report. Sir, as far as release of the report is concerned, it is noted that in GE 2001, the revised boundaries were released about one week before Nomination Day. In the last GE, they were announced about seven-and-a-half weeks before. I would call for the Boundaries Review Report to be released at least six months to one year before Nomination Day. This is especially important because of the unique situation in Singapore where there are GRCs and SMCs. GRCs can be chopped and changed and SMCs can be created and dissolved with the stroke of a pen. For the coming election, we are expecting some significant revisions due to expected increase in the number of SMCs from nine to 12 as some GRCs are being reduced in size. Having good notice would give voters confidence in the boundary redrawing process. It will also give a reasonable time for political parties to do more focused groundwork and consider their candidate line up. My second point relates to the contents of the report. In the last Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) Report, the terms of reference were very generally stated as reviewing and recommending the new constituencies and boundaries taking into account significant changes in the distribution of voters due to population shifts and housing development. As a basis, the 2006 report calculates the MP to voter ratio using the total number of voters nationally divided by the number of parliamentary seats. This led to a conclusion of one Member of Parliament (MP) for every 26,000 voters. The report then states that a 30% variation is allowed, leading to a possible voter range of between 18,000 and 34,000 per MP. Sir, reading the report raises more questions than it answers, for example, how was it derived that the 30% variation was permissible? Why were Ayer Rajah SMC and Bukit Timah SMC dissolved when they still had the number of voters in the acceptable range for SMCs? How was it decided that the new replacement SMCs would be Yio Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang, and so on? Sir, such changes could not have been at the whims and fancies of the EBRC. There must have been a certain methodology employed or other factors considered. As this is a matter of public interest, could the next EBRC Report go further into the reasons for dissolving or creating SMCs or changing the boundaries of GRCs.

Sir, the Government must know that Singaporeans are skeptical about the redrawing of boundaries. It would be an improvement to have advanced notice and some transparency in this process. Mr Wong Kan Seng: Sir, the law allows the Prime Minister to call a General Election (GE) any time and there is no legal requirement that the electoral boundaries be revised ahead of a GE. The Prime Minister also has full discretion in determining the number and boundaries of Electoral Divisions. But it has been the practice of the Prime Minister to appoint the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee to look at the boundaries whenever he thinks it is necessary. And based on past experience, he has always appointed the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) before every General Election. The Committee usually takes between two and four months to complete the review. Once that report is completed and the Prime Minister has accepted it, he will present it to Parliament without delay. As to whether the report will be released way ahead of the next GE or six to 12 months ahead of the GE, much depends on when the Prime Minister calls for the Election. I believe he will give all interested candidates and parties as much time as possible. But the timing of the release of the report, and the timing of the calling of Election may not be very certain because the Committee needs to complete the report and if the Prime Minister, at his own discretion, thinks that that is the right time to call an Election, he may call for an Election. But I can assure the Member that he would give sufficient time to Members and interested parties to look at the constituency changes. 4.45 pm The appointment of the EBRC is not mandated by law. But the Committee's work is guided by the terms of reference given by the Prime Minister. I have not seen any yet because no Committee has been appointed so far and I do not know what will go into the terms of reference, whether it includes some of the issues that the Member talked about. But, generally, the Committee will look at population shifts, population changes, and then decide on where each of the constituencies will be, including the parts that need to be redrawn. Why some are changed and why some are not changed, I think much depends on the configuration at the time. And that is very much left to the discretion of the Committee. The 30% variation used by the Committee in deciding the size of a constituency is a practice that has been carried out for the last 30 years. Before that, the number was smaller but the Committee needs to have a certain way and a certain principle of guiding themselves on determining the size of the constituency. So in the last 30 years or so, each of the Committees has adopted the 30% variation. *******