It has been 17 days now since the Singapore General Elections. Enough of time to put thoughts into electrons and share it with the rest of the world but importantly, to help me remember what happened.

There are many things I can write about but I will fill out this blog with what I’ve learned, observations made and what I’d like to see for the future.

The Walkabouts – Pre Lockdown

i joined the Progress Singapore Party in January 2020. Initially, the idea was for me to be part of the West Coast Group Representation Constituency and that was the basis of my initial engagement with PSP. That was around March 2020. As part of the outreach, I took part in a house-to-house visit of the HDB blocks in the Telok Blangah area around Telok Blangah heights Blks 50-74. We all met at the coffee shop at block 65 Telok Blangah Drive and used that as the base and fanned out to the 24 blocks in the area.

Turns out that was the last time I was able to do anything at all because the entire COVID-19 pandemic exploded and Singapore went into a lock down.

Walkabout – During Partial Lockdown

Well, none. It was a lockdown and all walkabouts and visits to hawker centres and coffee shops had to be suspended.  What we did was to go full steam into online webinars and outreach. This I think was a very useful exercise as it helped the entire group of us in the PSP to gain not only familiarity with being online and on webinars, but also a way to engage with Singapore. There were a series of “Meet the PSP” or “MPSP session” that I think was great in terms of being able to showcase the respective potential candidates as well as talk about issues. All of the sessions were live streamed on Zoom and also had a stream sent to the questionable walled garden which I shall not reference here. Check out the various recordings here on PSP’s youtube channel. We did a series of “Get to Know PSP’s Candidates” which I think was a very useful exercise in getting people to hear from the various candidates about who they are. It was hosted by Craig Teo who requested each candidate to share photos from childhood or whatever they were happy to share. Here’s my session done with Craig:

All of these recordings were done once the lockdown was lifted on 2 June. Suffice to say, lots of work went into making these and I am deeply thankful to all who were behind the video recording, editing etc. It is a labour of love in many ways as all are volunteers and here for the greater good of the country.

Then came 23 June 2020 and my all time favourite weather website – https://checkweather.sg was showing this at 2;15pm. It was pouring and there were reports of flooding around Singapore.

Then came announcement saying:

And so, later in the day, the Writ of Election was issued saying that polling day will be 10 July 2020. As has been in previous general elections, the barest minimum, legally mandated, duration for campaigning between nomination day and polling day is then put into place.

And so, the games began. More in part 2.