Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency

The Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency is a Single Member Constituency (SMC) in the central region of Singapore. It is managed by Jalan Besar Town Council. The current Member of Parliament of the constituency is People's Action Party (PAP) Sitoh Yih Pin.

Potong Pasir
Single Member constituency for the Parliament of Singapore
Region	Central Region, Singapore
Electorate	30,897
Current constituency
Created	1968; 57 years ago (1968)
Seats	1
Party	People's Action Party
Member(s)	Sitoh Yih Pin
Town Council	Jalan Besar

History

During the 1979 by-elections, Chiam See Tong contested in Potong Pasir Constituency as an independent candidate against Howe Yoon Chong, then a new PAP candidate. After submitting his nomination papers in the by-election, Howe dismissed the opposition candidates as "court jesters" who had come out "to provide comic relief".^[1] Howe eventually beat Chiam with almost 67% of the votes to win the Constituency seat.^[2][3]

Ahead of the 1980 general election held on 23 December 1980, Chiam founded the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) on 6 August 1980^[4] and contested in the election as a SDP candidate against Howe again in the constituency. In an election rally, Howe disparaged Chiam on his professional competence and was subsequently sued by Chiam for defamation.^[5] Howe offered compensation which Chiam accepted and dropped the case against him.^[5] Howe won again with 59.05 percent of the vote.^[6][7]

During the 1984 general election, Chiam contested as an SDP candidate in the constituency again. Howe retired from politics that year and did not contest the constituency^[8] with sending a new candidate Mah Bow Tan to contest it. In the lead-up to the election, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew compared Chiam and Mah's GCE Ordinary Level results in a rally speech: "Mah Bow Tan, age 16, took his O Levels — six distinctions, two credits. Mr Chiam, age 18 — six credits, one pass." The Prime Minister's Office later conveyed an apology from Lee for making an error about Chiam's results; Chiam had actually gotten seven credits.^[9] Chiam eventually won the election with 60.28% of the vote against Mah's 39.72%,^[10][11] and was elected as the MP representing Potong Pasir SMC.

In the 2011 Singaporean general election, Chiam did not contest his seat but lead a team to contest at the Bishan–Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency. Chiam's wife, Lina Loh, became his successor for the constituency and contested for the seat against Sitoh. Loh lost the election on a marginal percentage of 0.72%. As the best performing loser at the polls, Loh was offered the non-constituency MP (NCMP) position and accepted it.

In the 2015 Singaporean general election, Sitoh retained his seat, this time with 66.41% of the votes, again defeating Loh.

Following the release of the EBRC report for the 2020 General Election, the Toa Payoh estates under this SMC were transferred into the 4-member Bishan–Toa Payoh GRC while this constituency in return, took the Joo Seng and Woodleigh neighbourhoods from the neighbouring Marine Parade GRC's Geylang Serai ward, to allow further development. Sitoh would defeat Singapore People's Party (SPP) Jose Raymond with a vote count of 60.67% vs 39.33%, winning a third term as the incumbent MP for Potong Pasir.

2025 elections

Due to new developments in the Bidadari area under the SMC, the Elections Department Singapore on 11 March 2025 carved part of the SMC out to merge into a new Marine Parade–Braddell Heights Group Representation Constituency for the 2025 Singaporean general election.^[12]

On 16 April, it was announced Sitoh will not contest the constituency and Alex Yeo, the PAP branch chair for Paya Lebar in Aljunied GRC, will contest the constituency instead.^[13] On 22 April, SPP announced that party treasurer Williiamson Lee will contest the constituency.^[14] On nomination day, secretary-general of the coalition People's Alliance for Reform (PAR), Lim Tean, who is also party chief of Peoples Voice, alongside PAP's Yeo and SPP's Lee, was successfully nominated to contest the constituency, resulting in a three cornered fight between PAP, SPP and PAR.^[15]

Member of Parliament

Year	Member	Party
Formation
1968	Sellappa Ramaswamy		PAP
1972	Baptist Ivan Cuthbert
1976
1979	Howe Yoon Chong
1984	Chiam See Tong		SDP
1988
1991
1997			SPP
2001			SDA
2006
2011	Sitoh Yih Pin		PAP
2015
2020

Electoral results

Note : Elections Department Singapore do not include rejected votes for calculation of candidate's vote share. Hence, the total of all candidates' vote share will be 100%.

Elections in 1960s

General Election 1968^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Sellappa Ramaswamy	Unopposed
Registered electors			11,782
	PAP win (new seat)

Elections in 1970s

General Election 1972^[17][18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Baptist Ivan Cuthbert	7,772	66.22	N/A
	WP	Rajaratnam Murugason	3,391	28.89	N/A
	UNF	Harnek Singh	573	4.89	N/A
Majority			4,381	37.33	N/A
Total valid votes			11,736	97.88	N/A
Rejected ballots			254	2.12	N/A
Turnout			11,990	91.51	N/A
Registered electors			13,103		11.21
	PAP hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1976^[19][20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Baptist Ivan Cuthbert	9,667	74.83	8.61
	WP	Quek Doh Lam	3,252	25.17	3.72
Majority			6,415	49.66	12.33
Total valid votes			12,919	97.46	0.42
Rejected ballots			336	2.54	0.42
Turnout			13,255	93.56	2.05
Registered electors			14,167		8.12
	PAP hold		Swing	8.6

By Election 1979

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Howe Yoon Chong	9,056	66.9	7.9
	Independent	Chiam See Tong	4,491	33.1	N/A
Majority			4,565	33.7	15.8
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			13,845	94.2	0.6
Registered electors
	PAP hold		Swing	7.9

Elections in 1980s

General Election 1980

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Howe Yoon Chong	5,509	59.0	7.9
	SDP	Chiam See Tong	3,821	41.0	7.9
Majority			1,688	18.0	31.6
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			9,486	94.2	0.6
Registered electors
	PAP hold		Swing	7.9

General Election 1984

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDP	Chiam See Tong	10,128	60.3	19.3
	PAP	Mah Bow Tan	6,674	39.7	19.3
Majority			3,454	20.6	38.6
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			17,078	95.3	1.1
Registered electors
	SDP gain from PAP		Swing	19.3

General Election 1988: Potong Pasir

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDP	Chiam See Tong	11,804	63.1	2.8
	PAP	Kenneth Chen Koon Lap	6,893	36.9	2.8
Majority			4,911	26.2	5.6
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			18,697	95.4	0.1
Registered electors
	SDP hold		Swing	2.8

Elections in 1990s

General Election 1991: Potong Pasir

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDP	Chiam See Tong	12,582	69.64	6.5
	PAP	Andy Gan	5,486	30.36	6.5
Majority			7,096	39.2	13.0
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			18,325	95.1	0.3
Registered electors
	SDP hold		Swing	6.5

General Election 1997: Potong Pasir

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SPP	Chiam See Tong	9,709	55.15	14.49
	PAP	Andy Gan	7,895	44.85	14.4
Majority			1,814	10.30	N/A
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			17,884	95.1	0
Registered electors
	SPP gain from SDP		Swing	14.4

Elections in 2000s

General Election 2001: Potong Pasir

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDA	Chiam See Tong	8,107	52.43	2.72
	PAP	Sitoh Yih Pin	7,356	47.57	2.8
Majority			751	4.8	5.6
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			15,463	98.9	3.8
Registered electors
	SDA gain from SPP		Swing	2.8

General Election 2006: Potong Pasir

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDA	Chiam See Tong	8,245	55.82	3.39
	PAP	Sitoh Yih Pin	6,527	44.18	3.4
Majority			1,718	11.6	6.8
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			14,958	94.1	4.8
Registered electors
	SDA hold		Swing	3.4

Elections in 2010s

General Election 2011: Potong Pasir

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Sitoh Yih Pin	7,992	50.36	6.18
	SPP	Lina Chiam	7,878	49.64	6.2
Majority			114	0.8	12.4
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout			16,112	93.0	1.1
Registered electors
	PAP gain from SDA		Swing	6.2

General Election 2015

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Sitoh Yih Pin	10,581	66.41	16.05
	SPP	Lina Chiam	5,353	33.59	16.05
Majority			5,228	32.10	31.30
Total valid votes			15,934	98.61
Rejected ballots			224	1.39
Turnout			16,158	92.82	0.18
Registered electors			17,407
	PAP hold		Swing	16.05

Elections in 2020s

General Election 2020

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Sitoh Yih Pin	11,264	60.67	5.74
	SPP	Jose Raymond	7,302	39.33	5.74
Majority			3,962	21.34
Total valid votes			18,566	98.52
Rejected ballots			279	1.48
Turnout			18,845	95.51	2.69
Registered electors			19,731		13.35
	PAP hold		Swing	5.74

General Election 2025

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Alex Yeo
	SPP	Williiamson Lee
	PAR	Lim Tean
Majority
Total valid votes
Rejected ballots
Turnout
Registered electors			30,897		5.39