Is a general
election this year now confirmed?
Did
Mediacorp cock up and let the cat out of the bag? Is a general
election this year confirmed?
Look at this screen shot from
9:36 pm, Thursday, 19 February 2009. When I saw it, I called Choo
Zheng Xi of The Online Citizen immediately and he got exactly the
same page, so that I have a witness. He took a screen shot
too.
What about it? Look at the
page title -– it says "General Election 2009". The contents though
are from 2006. Ask yourself: Why would a page from 2006 carry a
title that references 2009?
The only explanation I can
think of is that Mediacorp is preparing all their websites to
support an election. The easiest thing to do, as any webmaster
knows, is to recycle previously designed pages.
So that's what's happening -–
they are in the process of updating and recycling, but forgot that
the pages are still "live". As a result, we can see the work in
progress.
But if there is work in
progress, does it mean the election is a sure thing?
* * * * *
The Straits Times today (19
Feb 2009) carried a front page story headlined "Changes made to
polling districts". The gist of it was that the Elections
Department has issued as statement saying that changes have been
made to boundaries of polling districts. A polling district is a
neighbourhood that shares one polling station. The boundary changes
are necessary for logistical reasons, so that the numbers of voters
are not too many for any particular polling station to
handle.
Usually, as the newspaper
reported, changes to polling districts are followed by another
announcement, concerning changes to boundaries of electoral
constituencies, a few weeks or a few months later. The longest lag
time in recent memory was six months in 1997. And that is usually
the signal for a general election.
On Tuesday, 17 February, the
Elections Department had also announced that the electoral register
was being updated, an exercise that should be completed by 30
April. While updating electoral rolls is said to be routine,
boundary changes are widely believed to be indicative of an
upcoming general election.
However, there is no need to
finish updating the electoral rolls before calling an election. If
the government calls for a snap election, they'll just use the old
register.
Despite this, the Straits
Times found many politicians and political watchers unsure how soon
an election would be. The next one isn't due until 2012. Member of
Parliament Ong Ah Heng tried to dismiss speculation:
Nee Soon Central MP Ong Ah
Heng saw yesterday's announcement as a 'normal procedure' and
thought a snap election highly unlikely.
'The earliest will be next year. But it depends very much on the
economy and when we can overcome the recession,' he said.
'The Government is now concentrating its energy on helping workers
and companies. Where is there energy for a general election?'
Mr Ong, who has not set up his election committee, added that the
Government was mindful of the widespread impact of the recession,
including on many middle- and upper-middle-income
Singaporeans.
So he felt the Government would 'consider very carefully' and wait
for signs of a recovery before calling an
election.
-- Straits Times, 19
February 2009,
Changes made to polling districts
Other political watchers were
also guarded:
Agreeing, political analyst
Eugene Tan said holding the polls now would be a distraction.
Besides, people had yet to see the impact of measures passed in the
Budget.
Sociologist Terence Chong, like Joo Chiat MP Chan Soo Sen, argued
that the Government is getting processes ready in order to call an
election at any time.
'The best you can say is that they are putting the pieces in place
so that there is an option, and if the (economic) forecast is very
gloomy, they may call one before things get worse,' Mr Chong
said.
Preparations began last November when public servants selected to
be election officers were sent letters informing them of training
they will receive. Schools have also been designated as polling
centres.
-- ibid.
Yawning Bread had revealed in
a January article that there is insider talk about a snap election.
The article Why there mustn't be an election this year offered
my view that holding an election now can only mean two things:
Either the People's Action Party wants to ride a "flight to safety"
effect to sweep all opposition away, regaining a monopoly of
parliamentary seats -- a most undemocratic motive, if you ask me --
or the government has no confidence at all that the economy will
improve by 2011. The latter will mean a very long and painful
recession.
Mediacorp, in preparing its
website, may also believe that an election is imminent. The unknown
is: Are they doing it based on their own gut feel and mere
preparedness, or have they been told to get their website ready by
a certain date? Either way, it looks like an election this year and
not later. 
© Yawning Bread
http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2009/yax-987.htm