GE2020: PAP’s Murali Pillai wins Bukit Batok with 54.8% against SDP’s Chee Soon Juan

SINGAPORE: The People’s Action Party’s (PAP's) Murali Pillai has won Bukit Batok SMC with 54.8 per cent of the vote against the Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) Chee Soon Juan, who got 45.2 per cent of the valid votes.

The two candidates had faced off in the 2016 by-election, when Mr Murali won 61.2 per cent of the vote against Dr Chee.

In his constituency political broadcast, Mr Murali talked about the importance of having plans and executing them. He had taken over the helm of the constituency from Mr David Ong, who stepped down owing to a “personal indiscretion”.

Meanwhile, Dr Chee, in his second bid for the single seat, touched on the importance of having a full-time Member of Parliament and said he intended to be a full-time MP for Bukit Batok SMC if elected.

GE2020 live: Singapore voters head to the ballot box on Polling Day

During campaigning, estate issues were raised, with Dr Chee saying that there were delayed upgrading projects and safety lapses in the constituency.

In response, Mr Murali said he did not “condone shortcomings” and that he would take “appropriate measures” to deal with issues.

He added that if there were to be a clash between residents’ interests and his personal and job priorities, he would put residents’ interests first.

In a video posted to Facebook after the confirmed results, Mr Murali thanked Bukit Batok voters and his volunteers.

"I will do my best to make sure that the plans I set out in my manifesto will be made a reality with your support," he said.

He also thanked Dr Chee for the "keen contest", saying that the contest allowed him to "better understand" the concerns of Bukit Batok residents and added that he would "work very hard to address these issues".

Speaking to reporters outside the SDP headquarters in Ang Mo Kio after the announcement of the sample count for Bukit Batok, Dr Chee said the party “will continue to press on”.

“We ran a very good campaign that was focused on policy and on the issues. Unfortunately, we came up short,” he said.

“We're going to continue to try to see what we can begin to improve on and then come back stronger. It’s been a good campaign as I said, and we're going to leave it as that.”

Dr Chee also thanked voters in constituencies contested by the SDP as well as party supporters and volunteers who “worked tirelessly right through the campaign”.

Bukit Batok SMC was created in 1972. It was absorbed into Bukit Timah GRC in 1997 and later became part of Jurong GRC before it was carved out again as a single seat for the 2015 General Election.

There are 29,950 voters in Bukit Batok this election.

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