By-election should be held in Jurong GRC

July 26, 2008
By-election should be held in Jurong GRC
THE group representation constituency (GRC) system was established in 1988. The Government says this ensures that minority races are always represented in Parliament, which is commendable. Under the Parliamentary Elections Act, there are 14 GRCs represented by 75 MPs and nine single-member constituencies. The President has, by law, designated that at least one MP in each of nine GRCs must belong to the Malay community and at least one MP in each of five GRCs must belong to the Indian and other minority communities. The President has also, by order published in the Gazette, declared the group number for each GRC under Section 8A (1) (a) of the Act. The group number declared for Jurong GRC is five but now, ominously, in contradiction to the group number declared by the President, there are only four MPs in that GRC. With this in mind, there are, logically, at least four scenarios whereby a GRC by-election should be held under the law: If in any of the nine GRCs where only one of the MPs belongs to the Malay community and he or she resigns or is no longer a member of the party or is disqualified or is no longer a Singapore citizen or has died, then that GRC ceases to comply with the law. The same rationale applies in the case of the five GRCs where only one of the MPs belongs to the Indian or other minority communities. If all members of a GRC resign and form a new political party or join another party. If at least one MP of a GRC resigns or is no longer a member of the party or is disqualified or is no longer a Singapore citizen or has died (as in the case of Jurong GRC), then that GRC ceases to comply with the group number declared by the President, because, as clearly stated by the Elections Department, 'the President declares the group number for each GRC by law'. In my opinion, the conundrum now faced by Jurong GRC is that it may also not comply with Section 22 (2) of the Act as it does not have 'such number of Members to serve in Parliament as designated for that constituency by the President under Section 8A (1) (a)', unless it co-opts a fifth member and, hopefully, wins the by-election. Tan Keng Tat