Veteran
politician and banker Tony Tan was declared the winner of Singapore's
presidential election Sunday after a recount gave him a razor-thin victory that
exposed sharp divisions in the electorate.
The 71-year-old former deputy prime minister, seen a proxy
for the ruling party, won by just 7,269 votes over his closest challenger out
of 2.1 million valid votes cast in Saturday's four-way race to become head of
state.
Tan got 744,397 votes, or 35 percent of the total, well below
the 60 percent garnered by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) in general
elections held in May that marked the lowest point in its popularity after 52
years in power.
"The president is a president for all Singaporeans, not
only for those who have voted for me but even for those who have not voted for
me. I pledge to work for each and everyone of you," he said after his
victory was announced.
"It has been a strenuous campaign, it's over now, the
real work begins straight away."
The Elections Department ordered the recount of all votes
cast after the first tally showed the two frontrunners were less than two
percent apart.
Presidential candidates run as individuals in keeping with
the non-partisan nature of the job, but Tony Tan was widely associated with the
PAP after he quit the party only in June to run for president.
His closest rival was a political maverick, physician Tan
Cheng Bock, who courted the opposition vote and called for a clear separation
between the president and the government despite being a former PAP member
himself.
The presidential post has veto powers over key government
appointments and safeguards Singapore's foreign reserves, which now total
around $250 billion.
The former British colony has a Westminster-style
parliamentary system and became a republic in 1965.
Until Saturday's vote, there was limited political interest
in the post, which was widely seen as a ceremonial job.
But emotions were still running high three-and-a-half months
after the May general election, especially in online forums that now set the
tone for the national political debate with mainstream media perceived to be
pro-PAP.
Tony Tan, his family and the PAP came under scathing attack
in social media during the nine-day presidential campaign.
He served for 27 years in parliament and ran five cabinet
ministries before moving on to the Government of Singapore Investment
Corporation (GIC), which invests Singapore's foreign reserves.
The closely fought race exposed a vastly torn electorate,
said Murray Hiebert, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for
Strategic and International Studies' Southeast Asia programme.
"I think it shows Singaporeans pretty evenly divided
between those who wanted to support the candidate most closely identified with
the PAP and give the government a vote of confidence, and those who wanted a
more independent president," he told AFP.
Tan Cheng Bock, 71, the runner-up, said before the election
that the president "must not be a proxy of any political party."
"His interest must be national, not with a political
agenda in mind."
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong overhauled his cabinet after
the May parliamentary polls, which he called a "watershed" in
Singapore politics.
Lee's predecessors -- his own father Lee Kuan Yew and Goh
Chok Tong -- retired as cabinet advisers as part of the reshuffle.
The soaring cost of living, lack of affordable public
housing, competition for jobs from foreign workers and overcrowded public
transport services were among the gripes aired by Singaporeans in the run-up to
the May polls.
The presidential campaign was dominated by calls for an
independent head of state to serve as a check on the PAP, which steered Singapore
to prosperity but now finds itself on the defensive.
Bridget Welsh, a political science professor at the Singapore
Management University, said Singaporeans "are tired of elitism" and
that Tony Tan was seen as a representative of the political elite.
Source : AFP
EmpireMoney.com
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