Poor turnout at PAP rally at Jurong West stadium

Only less than one hundred people turned up at the PAP rally at Jurong West stadium tonight with most of them appearing to be senior citizens in their 60s and 70s:

[Source: TR Facebook]

In contrast, the SDP rally at neighbouring Jurong East stadium managed to attract a crowd of more than 10,000 people:

[Source: sgrally]

PAP’s Cedric Foo will be contesting against NSP’s Steve Chia in Pioneer SMC.

The poor turnout at the PAP rally expectedly brought a chorus of sneers from netizens.

Kelvin Low wrote:

“I see 200,000 ants…..Hahaha!”

Jarod Ong added sarcastically:

“The foreign workers need today. Tomorrow all will join the PAP at their rallies instead of going to Little India.”

The size of turnout at election rallies is not an accurate predictor of the level of support for the opposition parties. During the 2006 elections, the PAP rallies had poor turnout too compared to the opposition’s, but it still win 66 percent of the votes on polling day.

There are large numbers of Singaporeans who don’t bother to attend the PAP rallies and will cast a vote for it on polling day.

The stakes are never as high as before in Singapore’s 14 general election. With both opposition MPs Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Kiang contesting in GRCs, Singaporeans may end up not having a single elected opposition MP in parliament though the PAP may suffer a drop in its percentage of votes.