..I intend to call a by-election in Hougang: PM Lee
..By Deborah Choo
..Posts..By Deborah Choo | SingaporeScene – Fri, Mar 9,
2012….....
PM Lee has said that he intends to call for by-election in Hougang.
(Yahoo! file photo)
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will call for by-elections in
Hougang.
This is PM Lee’s full reply in Parliament to PAP
MP Christopher de Souza’s question on a by-election in
Hougang:
The Hougang Single Member Constituency (SMC) seat is vacant
after the Workers’ Party expelled Mr Yaw Shin Leong, following
several weeks of media reports on Mr Yaw’s personal indiscretions.
I intend to call a by-election in Hougang to fill this vacancy.
However, I have not yet decided on the timing of the by-election.
In deciding on the timing, I will take into account all relevant
factors, including the well being of Hougang residents, issues on
the national agenda, as well as the international backdrop which
affects our prosperity and security.
As for the legal question of whether and when I must call a
by-election, an application has been filed in court concerning
this, so the matter is now sub judice, i.e. under the consideration
of the court. While MPs enjoy parliamentary immunity in this House,
our parliamentary convention is that we do not talk about matters
which are sub judice, for good reason.
I can, however, remind Members that Parliament debated this
issue extensively in 2008, when two NMPs moved a motion proposing
to require the Prime Minister to call a by-election within three
months of a seat falling vacant. I participated in that debate, and
stated the Government’s position fully, after taking the advice of
the Attorney-General. I consulted the present Attorney-General
again to confirm his advice before answering today’s question. Let
me summarise what I said in 2008 about the Constitutional
position.
Article 49 of the Constitution states that when a seat falls
vacant it shall be filled by election. In an SMC, a seat falls vacant when the MP vacates his office,
for example when he is expelled from his political party, resigns
his seat, or passes away. The timing of the by-election is at the
discretion of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is not obliged
to call a by-election within any fixed timeframe.
This absence of any stipulated time frame is the result of a
deliberate decision by Parliament to confer on the Prime Minister
the discretion to decide when to fill a Parliamentary vacancy.
Then-Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew explained this when he moved
the Constitutional amendment in December 1965:
“[This amendment] revokes a clause which was introduced into the
State Constitution of Singapore when it entered Malaysia.
Members in this House will know that there was no such
injunction of holding a by-election within three months in our
previous Constitution. We resisted this particular condition being
imposed upon the State Constitution at the time we entered
Malaysia, but our representations were not accepted because
Malaysia insisted on uniformity of our laws with the other States
in the Federation and with the Federal Constitution itself.
Since we are no longer a part of the Federal whole, for reasons
which we find valid and valuable as a result of our own experience
of elections and of government in Singapore, we have decided that
this limitation should no longer apply.”
The Constitution therefore reflects a political philosophy that
emphasises stable government, and the view that in elections voters
are primarily choosing between political parties to be given the
mandate to govern the country, rather than between individual
candidates to become MPs. We have kept the Constitutional provision
because the considerations for enacting it in 1965 remain relevant
today.
qua finally calls for election.
