By Bertha Henson and Christalle Tay

SINGAPORE — At age 84, the man who made Potong Pasir's name synonymous with himself is expected to call it a day by stepping down as chief of the Singapore People's Party in October. Mr Chiam See Tong wrested the single-seat ward from the People's Action Party in 1984 when he was then heading the Singapore Democratic Party. He did so after three tries.

Will Potong Pasir, like Mr Chiam, go quietly into the night?

That's up to the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC), which redraws electoral boundaries before general elections. The lower limit on the number of electors per MP has been set at 20,000 for the past two elections.

Potong Pasir's electoral numbers have been below the set minimum since 2001. In 2015, it was the smallest ward in Singapore, with just 17,407 voters. In April this year, the Register of Electors logged its voter numbers at 16,739. Yet the boundaries of the ward have remained intact despite population shifts – and despite the People's Action Party's take over of the ward in 2011.

Likewise, Hougang, also a single-seat ward, has remained untouched since it fell to the Workers' Party in 1991.

Lianhe Zaobao reported an expected increase in eligible electors in Potong Pasir as new residents move into new Bidadari Build-To-Order (BTO) housing estates lying within Potong Pasir SMC. The four new BTO estates total 3,700 new units, which could potentially bring the number of eligible electors above 20,000.

Residents of one estate, Alkaff Vista, have started to collect their keys in July. A second estate, Alkaff Lakeview, is set to be completed by the end of this year. The last two, Alkaff Courtview and Alkaff Oasis are expected to open its doors to residents by June and December next year respectively.

View photos SOURCE: Elections Department Singapore More

On the other hand, voter numbers in Hougang, still held by the WP, have varied.

View photos SOURCE: Elections Department Singapore (EBRC did not set a range of electors to MP in 1991) More

There could be a political reason for leaving opposition-held wards un-touched: it reduces the accusation of gerrymandering by the Government.

While it was well within the EBRC's power to re-draw, and even remove, Potong Pasir, from the electoral map for the 2015 GE, the previous EBRC did not do so.

One reading: PAP’s Sitoh Yi Pin won by the slimmest of margins – 0.7 per cent or 112 votes – over the Singapore People's Party's Lina Chiam in the 2011 GE. Perhaps, the 2015 GE was to affirm that this was no freak result. Mr Sitoh widened the margin to 32.8 per cent in the 2015 GE.

There is a third SMC which is worth paying attention to – Punggol East. It fell to the Workers’ Party in the 2013 by-election which had three opposition contenders and a newbie PAP politician slugging it out. In a multi-cornered fight, the PAP usually comes out ahead because the opposition vote would be split. In this case, it didn’t.

Two years later in the GE, the PAP fielded a veteran, Mr Charles Chong in the SMC and it was wrested back with a 3.5 per cent winning margin. Will Mr Chong be going into it alone again in the upcoming election?

The Elections Department announced on 4 September 2019 that the committee was already a month into its formation, hinting that the next election is on the horizon. Judging by the past three elections, the committee may take from two to four months after its formation to release its report. The report was released two months after its formation in 2015, and four months after in 2011 and 2006.

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