The recent spate of events has caused the Hougang by-election to become more than just a mundane affair. (Yahoo! …
COMMENT
A by-election which was expected to be nothing more than a formality to fill a vacant seat has turned into something else.
It all started earlier this year with allegations of personal indiscretions by the Workers' Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP), Yaw Shin Leong. Subsequently, Yaw was dismissed from the party for failing to give an account of the allegations to his party leadership. According to the law, anyone who is no longer a member of the party with which he won his parliamentary seat is deemed to have vacated that seat. Yaw's seat in the Hougang single-member constituency (SMC) was thus declared vacant on 14 February.
That set the stage for a by-election in the WP stronghold, which the party has held for more than 20 years. Speculation followed on who the WP would field to replace Yaw, and whether there will be a multi-party contest in the ward.
The rumours and speculations continued — until the Prime Minister , under whose aegis resided the power to call
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