1992 Marine Parade by-election

1992 Marine Parade by-election

19 December 1992
Registered	73,986
Turnout	68,436 (92.50%) 1.07%
First party Second party   Candidate Goh Chok Tong Othman bin Haron Eusofe Teo Chee Hean Matthias Yao Chee Soon Juan Low Yong Nguan Mohamed Shariff bin Yahya Ashleigh Seow Party PAP SDP Popular vote 48,965 16,447 Percentage 72.94% 24.50% Swing 4.31% 24.50%   Third party Fourth party   Candidate Ken Sen Tan Chee Kian Sarry bin Hassan Yong Choon Poh Theng Chin Eng Yen Kim Khooi Suib bin Abdul Rahman Lim Teong Howe Party NSP SJP Popular vote 950 764 Percentage 1.42% 1.14% Swing 1.42% 21.61%
MPs before election Goh Chok Tong Lim Chee Onn Othman bin Haron Eusofe Matthias Yao PAP Elected MPs Goh Chok Tong Othman bin Haron Eusofe Teo Chee Hean Matthias Yao PAP

The by-election was held on 19 December 1992. The by-election was to replace as Goh decided to hold a by-election in a safe constituency with the best chances of winning for political self-renewal to get people of ministerial calibre to join the government under PAP.

This was the first time that a Singaporean Prime Minister vacated his or her own constituency to stand for a by-election thereby producing a risk of Goh losing the premiership in under two years, in the event he lost the by-election.

Fortunately, the People's Action Party (PAP) won with 72.9% of the vote. The team of candidates - led by Goh - were subsequently declared as the MPs for Marine Parade GRC, thus ensuring Goh's retention of his office as Prime Minister. The party was re-sworn in Parliament a month later on 18 January 1993.

Background

At the time of this by-election, both Deputy Prime Ministers, Ong Teng Cheong and Lee Hsien Loong, were suffering from cancer. Goh decided to hold a by-election in a safe constituency with the best chances of winning for "political self-renewal" to get people of "ministerial calibre" to join the government under PAP. While Goh, Othman bin Haron Eusofe and Matthias Yao were running again in the same constituency, Lim Chee Onn was replaced with Teo Chee Hean, the former chief of the Singapore navy, for the by-election.

At the 1991 general election, Goh promised to hold a by-election in 12 to 18 months' time to allow J. B. Jeyaretnam, of the Workers’ Party, to contest a seat in parliament. Jeyaretnam was unable to contest in the 1991 general election due to a parliamentary ban which expired two months after the 1991 general election. However, the party ultimately did not participate as one candidate turned up late on nomination day. WP would eventually contest this ward 23 years later in 2015.

The by-election took place 11 years after the previous one, which at the time was the longest interval between by-elections. This would be surpassed by the 2012 Hougang by-election, that took place nearly two decades after this by-election.

Election deposit

The election deposit was set at $6,000 per candidate. Similar to previous elections, the election deposit will be forfeited if the particular candidate had failed to secure at least 12.5% or one-eighth of the votes.

Results

By-election 1992: Marine Parade GRC

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PAP	Goh Chok Tong Othman bin Haron Eusofe Teo Chee Hean Matthias Yao	48,965	72.9	−4.3
	SDP	Chee Soon Juan Low Yong Nguan Mohamed Shariff bin Yahya Ashleigh Seow	16,447	24.5	+24.5
	NSP	Ken Sen Tan Chee Kian Sarry bin Hassan Yong Choon Poh	950	1.4	+1.4
	SJP	Theng Chin Eng Yen Kim Khooi Suib bin Abdul Rahman Lim Teong Howe	764	1.1	−21.7
Majority			30,804	45.9	−8.5
Turnout			68,436	92.5	−1.1
	PAP hold		Swing	-4.3

Aftermath

Following the by-election, Chee Soon Juan had received acclaim in public interest towards their supporters of Singapore Democratic Party, but on the following year, a party dispute ensued between him and Chiam See Tong; Chiam was expelled from the party's CEC but won a lawsuit to retain his Potong Pasir SMC seat and his position on procedure grounds, which lead to the formation of Singapore People's Party. Chee then became the party's Secretary-General till this day, though the party were unsuccessful on winning seats in subsequent attempts, including MacPherson SMC where he publicly challenged Matthias Yao in the next election.

The Marine Parade seat would not be challenged again until 2011 where National Solidarity Party contested there. The next instance where a GRC would face a multi-cornered contest was in the 2020 election, where both Singapore Democratic Alliance and the new party, Peoples Voice, challenged Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, which coincidentally, the PAP team also consist of Teo Chee Hean. The next by-election where SDP would be involved with was in 2016, with Chee facing against Murali Pillai in the seat of Bukit Batok SMC.