Yahoo! News Singapore, 19 Aug 2013Return to Singapore’s previous system of electing only one candidate per constituency.
Human rights activist group MARUAH issued this call on Monday as they presented a position paper in which they argued that the current group representation constituency (GRC) system allows "free-riders" to enter politics on the coattails of more established party members.
They pointed out that the GRC system, which was introduced in the late 1980s and enlarged in the mid-1990s, had the stated aim of ensuring minority representation in Parliament, but has since been widely criticised for creating an unlevel playing field between the ruling People’s Action Party and opposition parties.
Trust Singaporean voters to vote on merit, not on ethnic lines and should this fail, beef up ethnic minority representation by installing the closest losers as Members of Parliament (MPs) through the addition of seats, MARUAH said. Full story
