Originally posted by Viper52:
Internet poll shows Singaporeans want PM Goh to stay
on
Agence France Presse
August 27, 2003
SINGAPORE
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw03/030827af.htm
PRIME Minister Goh Chok Tong would stay in power if Singaporeans
could vote directly for their head of government, according to an
online poll conducted by top Internet portal Yahoo Singapore.
Yahoo users were asked to tick from a list of eight ministers their
choice "if you could vote for the next Prime Minister."
Goh, 62, announced on August 17 that he would step down by 2005 or
earlier after the economy recovers, and named his deputy Lee Hsien
Loong, 51, as [b]his
chosen successor.
But Yahoo Singapore's online voters had other ideas.
At noon Wednesday, with 2613 votes so far, 41 percent of
participants in the Yahoo poll picked Goh.
In second place was Goh's other deputy Tony Tan, 63, with 19
percent of the vote, followed by Lee with 15 percent. In fourth
place was Minister of Trade and Industry George Yeo, 48, with eight
percent.
Singapore's parliamentary system does not allow for direct election
of the prime minister, who is selected by the ruling party from
among elected members of parliament. Goh's People's Action Party
(PAP) has been in power since 1959.
In an earlier poll, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew -- the father of
deputy prime minister Lee -- was chosen by Yahoo users as
Singaporean of the Year in the run-up to city-state's independence
day celebrations on August 9.
The senior Lee, who turns 80 next month, stepped down as prime
minister in 1990 in favor of Goh, who has suggested publicly that
the junior Lee, a former brigadier general in the Singapore armed
forces, should soften his tough public image.
According to a spokesman, Yahoo reaches about 500,000 Singaporeans
and receives 22,000 opinions daily on community message
boards.
About 80 percent of Yahoo's users are between 18 and 54 years of
age, with an almost even gender split.
[/b]
Was it truly "HIS" choice that LHL should be the
next Prime Minister, or was it already decided more then ten years
ago ?
It was rather unusual that GCT said that a straw poll was taken
from amongst the Ministerial Colleagues and Members of Parliament,
as to who they thought would best be the next PM.
Why was the larger membership of the Ruling Party - (or the
population at large) - not polled, and then perhaps a more accurate
finding would have been received ?
What can one expect from those who are expected to tow the line,
and even despite their most honest thoughts, would have been
expected to seek the "supposed best" for sake of the majority"
?
