Singapore goes to the polls

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BN...77546.html

Some 2.2 million eligible voters will cast their ballots today.

SINGAPORE goes to the polls for the 11th time since independence.

Some 2.2 million eligible voters in all constituencies - except in uncontested Tanjong Pagar GRC which was won by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew - will cast their ballots in 732 polling stations.

They will pick 87 members of parliament in 27 constituencies - an MP in each of the 12 single member constituencies and four-to-six MPs in each of the 15 Group Representation Constituencies (GRC).

The GRC, introduced during the 1988 election, was established to ensure there will always be one elected member from each minority racial group in parliament.

The polling stations will open from 8am to 8pm. After the polls close, all ballot boxes will be sealed and taken to more than 150 counting centres. The first result is expected after 9pm.

I voted yesterday at the High Commission in London. Very expensive and slept little - bad day for me.

Hadriel

Gratz. I hope your voters are not as stupid as Finnish.

Our fame in EU got vounded already, because True Finns (who are against financial support packages to Portugal) got 39 chairs in our 200 member parliament.

I just hope that they will be outnumbered now...

Polling is now closed. We're all now eagerly anticipating the results... some nervously... ><

opposition party, let's go!

Workers party only got 6 seats. and only opposition to actually get seats. sad to see PAP still ruling with all the troubles they gave singaporeans...

I'd vote for PAP if I could. The PAP is fine.

I'd vote for PAP if I could. The PAP is fine.

I would agree to that but its been a turmoil ever since PM Lee Hsien Loong took over.... atleast thats what i think. bills have been rising, food prices, oil prices etc..

I'd vote for PAP if I could. The PAP is fine.

expect 11% gst at the end of this year. however, we lost a capable minister, george yeo. kinda sad to see him go down though.

I would agree to that but its been a turmoil ever since PM Lee Hsien Loong took over.... atleast thats what i think. bills have been rising, food prices, oil prices etc..

Yup, not global trend their or anything. Has to be the Prime Ministers fault.

backslashsarcasmlikeseriouslywhatthef'uck.

Yup, not global trend their or anything. Has to be the Prime Ministers fault.

backslashsarcasmlikeseriouslywhatthef'uck.

qft. It's happening here too. It's global.

I would agree to that but its been a turmoil ever since PM Lee Hsien Loong took over.... atleast thats what i think. bills have been rising, food prices, oil prices etc..

Allow me to enlighten you on the state of the economy.

Singapore is a small and open economy, highly susceptible to changes in the global market. Singapore has no natural resources, therefore it has to import nearly everything, and export to cover the costs (Export-led and Import-driven). Think about it; if a country that Singapore is importing food and fossil fuels from is experiencing inflation (i.e. it costs more for them to produce the food/excavate the fossil fuels = they have to charge more to cover the costs), they will have to charge Singapore importers more so that they can retain the same amount of profits. Obviously, Singapore importers have to charge more to retain their own profits, so the inflation is IMPORTED into Singapore and passed on to the consumers. The inflation has absolutely NOTHING to do with the PAP; if you must, blame the importers and exporters for wanting to maintain (or possibly increase) their profits.

If you still don't get it, here's a simple example:

Singapore imports mangoes from Thailand
Let's say an average Thai farmer earns SGD100 per shipping of mangoes
Due to high demand for fertiliser and insecticide in Thailand, producers of these two products decide to raise their prices.
Thai farmers growing mangoes are forced to pay more (e.g. an extra SGD20) to purchase these products to grow their crops.
Thai farmers would then earn 100 - 20 = SGD80 per shipping of mangoes
Let's say that they refuse to earn less than SGD100, so they raise their prices by 25% so that they once again earn SGD100.
The Singapore importer thus has to fork out an extra SGD20 per shipping to pay for the mangoes.
Let's say the Singapore importer earns an additional SGD100 per shipping selling mangoes to supermarkets (i.e. they charge supermarkets SGD200 per shipping)
The Singapore importer doesn't want to make less than that extra SGD100, so it charges the supermarkets an extra 25% as well (i.e. price rises from SGD200 to SGD250).
The supermarket doesn't want to make a loss either, so it passes that extra 25% to the consumers.

Summary: The farmers, importer and supermarket continue to earn the exact same amount of profit, leaving the consumers to pay an extra 25% PER MANGO (because multiplication applies to every value within a bracket, regardless).

Where on earth does the Government come into the picture here? Before you complain about GST, tell me, just how much of a loss would you make from GST? Let's say you bought an Asiasoft prepaid card for SGD10.50 when the GST was still 5%. Up to 7%, it's still just SGD10.70. It's just a FUCKING 20 BLOODY CENTS. How much of a stingy miser are you?! Once again, BLAME THE STOREKEEPER OR PRODUCER FOR NOT ABSORBING THE INCREASE IN GST, NOT THE FUCKING GOVERNMENT.

God. Seriously.

Nice one Hanabira...

In short, the government is not responsible for any rise in price of consumables. The same can't be said about our housing though...

Can they do more to reduce prices? Yes and no. "Yes" comes with a price of our future development. "No" because their options are limited too. GST increase is... inevitable... even UK increased their VAT (well, I'm complaining because everything here became more expensive for me! And VAT >> GST). Keeping things at status quo is already one of the best options.

I just don't like how this poll turned dirty and petty.

Hadriel

Nice one Hanabira...

In short, the government is not responsible for any rise in price of consumables. The same can't be said about our housing though...

Can they do more to reduce prices? Yes and no. "Yes" comes with a price of our future development. "No" because their options are limited too. GST increase is... inevitable... even UK increased their VAT (well, I'm complaining because everything here became more expensive for me! And VAT >> GST). Keeping things at status quo is already one of the best options.

I just don't like how this poll turned dirty and petty.

Hadriel

It did?

More petty than dirty, although dirty might be too strong a word to use. It's just not clean.

Hadriel

More petty than dirty, although dirty might be too strong a word to use. It's just not clean.

Hadriel

tarnished? tinged?

tarnished? tinged?

Tarnished? Nope.

Tinged? Possible word.

I think the best way to describe this is that its tainted.

Much as I'd like to tell my big boss, LCP from the scholarship-agency-with-a-grade-higher-than-A to stop casting our views through tinted lenses. (for the love of Alil-teration =P)

Hadriel