SINGAPORE: As the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) heads into Nomination Day on Wednesday (Apr 23), its likely line-up for three Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) remain under wraps: Tanjong Pagar GRC, East Coast GRC and the new Punggol GRC.
The deployment of candidates in these electoral blocs typically features an anchor minister – a full Cabinet minister who will lead the team into the hustings.
While two single-seat wards, Radin Mas and Queenstown, are also yet to be unveiled, these typically do not feature full ministers.
CNA understands the PAP has no plans to unveil its slates for these five remaining constituencies before Nomination Day.
As of now, four Cabinet ministers remain in play for the three GRCs.
In the previous GE, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat were the anchor ministers for Tanjong Pagar GRC and East Coast GRC respectively. The PAP's East Coast GRC team is now expected to include Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong, whose Joo Chiat ward was shifted over in the last review of the nation’s electoral map.
Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on Monday said he remains “available to contribute” in any way PAP secretary-general Lawrence Wong sees fit, after he confirmed he will not be fielded in the new Pasir Ris-Changi GRC.
Two Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Office who were in Tanjong Pagar GRC and East Coast GRC are out of the equation.
Ms Indranee Rajah will move to helm the Pasir Ris-Changi GRC slate, while East Coast GRC's Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman announced his retirement from politics.
Currently, there is no clear anchor minister for Punggol GRC, mirroring the situation in 2020 when East Coast GRC was without its team leader after the retirement of former anchor minister Lim Swee Say.
That year, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat made a surprise eleventh-hour move from Tampines GRC, with the PAP eventually defeating the Workers’ Party there.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat speaking at an SG60 event in East Coast on Apr 19, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Lim Li Ting)
Keeping their cards close to their chests until the last moment, brings strategic advantage to parties fighting an election, observers told CNA.
“In delaying, they can keep their opponents guessing as to who they will field there. If not, they will know who to deploy to counter that particular minister in a GRC,” said National University of Singapore associate professor of political science Bilveer Singh, noting suggestions that Workers’ Party secretary-general Pritam Singh may leave Aljunied GRC to contest somewhere else, following in his predecessor Low Thia Khiang’s footsteps.
An anchor minister is typically the most recognisable member of the team, given his or her prominence at the national level, observers said.
Having “one or two individuals within the team with more public recognition”, helps to cement voters’ impressions of the team, drawing in voters who are not as politically interested but nonetheless recognise political office holders from the news frequently, explained Institute of Policy Studies research fellow Teo Kay Key
In 2020, National Development Minister Desmond Lee had moved from Jurong GRC to West Coast GRC, joining former Cabinet minister S Iswaran on the PAP slate against the Progress Singapore Party’s A-team. They ended up winning the closest contest of that hustings.
On Wednesday, all eyes will be on the party’s slates as they turn up at their respective nomination centres, with nothing confirmed until after the nomination proceedings are completed and finalised.
Yusof Ishak Secondary School, located in Punggol, will be the nomination site for Punggol GRC and East Coast GRC. Tanjong Pagar GRC hopefuls will head to Bendemeer Primary School in Bendemeer Road.
In 2020, Mr Heng’s arrival at St Anthony's Canossian Primary School on the morning of Nomination Day was the first indication that he was standing in East Coast GRC. The school, in Bedok North, was the nomination centre for that constituency, and not his own ward of Tampines GRC.
“While it is called an ‘anchor minister’, I think the strategy is more like having an ‘anchor’ for each team,” said IPS' Dr Teo.
“This is usually one or two individuals within the team with more public recognition, perhaps because of their office-holder position … or because they have a lot of personal popularity among the constituents and the country.”
An anchor minister brings with him political experience, and the assurance that he will be at the heart of policy-making and helming ministries that could directly impact the lives of voters, said Dr Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst with Solaris Strategies Singapore.
He can also mentor and guide newer and inexperienced members of the team so they learn quickly on the job, especially with constituency and municipal issues, said Mr Malminderjit Singh, managing director of political consultancy Terra Corporate Affairs.
“If the minister is someone who is well-received nationally, voters would likely still vote to send him or her back into office,” said Dr Teo.
“In addition, a proportion of voters actually vote based on the party brand more than the individual team members, so for this group, who actually makes up the team is less important than the fact that the party is contesting in their constituency.”
Dr Mustafa said it will be “interesting” to see the line-up for Punggol GRC, and whether there will be an anchor minister fielded.
PAP’s Janil Puthucheary, Yeo Wan Ling, Sun Xueling, new face Foo Cexiang and Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean at the Punggol Town Family Carnival in One Punggol on Apr 19, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Jeremy Long)
The PAP’s Punggol team potentially includes two political office holders, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health Janil Puthucheary and Minister of State for Home Affairs and Social and Family Development Sun Xueling.
The other incumbent member is Yeo Wan Ling, while new face Foo Cexiang has been active on the ground there.
“It’s a brand new GRC and it's not been tested. Usually they would field a full minister, and I think that's what we can expect in Punggol,” said Dr Mustafa.
“Perhaps Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean may move to Punggol and anchor that GRC.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong acknowledged the contributions of outgoing Cabinet ministers Dr Maliki and Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a Facebook post, and shared valedictory letters to the pair.
He did not mention Senior Minister Teo in the post.
With the ruling party lacking an anchor minister in Punggol GRC and Ms Indranee moving over to Pasir Ris-Changi GRC, speculation is rife that Mr Teo could hop over to helm Punggol GRC.
Ms Indranee’s departure from Tanjong Pagar GRC means that Education Minister Chan remains the sole anchor in the PAP stronghold, which was represented by founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew until his death in 2015.
Meanwhile, East Coast GRC potentially has two anchor ministers in Mr Heng and Mr Tong.
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong speaking to the media with PAP members after a walkabout in Fengshan on Apr 12, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Mak Jia Kee)
The ruling party’s deployment of its ministers on the electoral map has always been an intentional and deliberate exercise.
In 2015, with the creation of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Prime Minister Wong – then the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth representing West Coast GRC – became the first minister who entered politics in 2011 to leave his original seat and lead a team in another.
In 1997, Mr Teo moved from Marine Parade GRC to anchor the newly created Pasir Ris GRC, in what was his first General Election since becoming full minister the year before.
However, observers noted that a team’s anchor may not necessarily be a full Cabinet minister, and could be someone at a senior minister of state level – something which the Punggol team already has.
Dr Mustafa cited the instance of Eunos GRC in 1991, when the four-member constituency was led by Senior Minister of State Tay Eng Soon.
Ultimately, who the anchor minister is or whether there is one in the first place, is likely not a determining factor in voters’ choice, he said.
“In 2015, the PAP grassroots team in Aljunied did very well and came very close to winning it back for the PAP, and they did not have an anchor minister,” he said.
He noted also that in 2020, the PAP’s Sengkang GRC slate featured Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Ng Chee Meng among three political office holders in the team, but they still lost to the WP.
“To some extent, the anchor minister role has become irrelevant, because voters want to know not so much what their representative can do for the nation, but what they can do for them at the local municipal level,” said Assoc Prof Singh.
“You’re also more busy as a minister, so there will be some people who may think you won’t be able to help them at the local level.”
For Cabinet ministers, their reputations — sometimes negative — also precede them if they move constituencies, because they’re always in the national spotlight, said Assoc Prof Singh.
He believed that the “flight to safety” principle no longer exists, whether it’s a familiar anchor minister or the ruling party brand, as shown in the 2020 General Election held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Observers told CNA that the ruling party might be withholding its slates in those three wards for strategic purposes, as they want to keep their cards close to their chests until the last moment.
This also indicates that those areas are where close fights are expected in the coming hustings.
“It’s more of a political chess game and not revealing it until the very end gains maximum political leverage,” said Dr Mustafa.
He said that not revealing a proposed final line-up leaves the party room to shuffle personnel around on Nomination Day itself.
“As we saw in 2020, they could do a switcheroo on the day itself, and they want to be able to have that opportunity to do it. If they unveil the line-up earlier, then it will be somewhat strange to change it subsequently,” he explained.
WP chief Pritam Singh had said over the weekend that his party was “very mindful” about the signals it sends, when asked about the caution from the PAP in revealing their line-ups in wards such as East Coast GRC ahead of Nomination Day.
"It is very well-known that we are a very small party, and so we have to be mindful how we employ our strategy," he had said.
However, there are cons to this secretive strategy too, noted observers.
The longer voters are kept in suspense, the more uncertainty they will feel as they do not know who is going to represent them, said Dr Mustafa.
New candidates or those who have moved from another constituency may also have a shorter runway to become familiarised with the voters, he added.
“So it is in the interest of all political parties who plan to contest in a particular constituency, to unveil their candidates early enough so that the voters know who they are, and they can create that social bond with the voters,” he said.
Since Apr 12, the ruling party has been gradually unveiling the likely candidates it will field for the May 3 polls.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had kicked things off in his own ward by naming an unchanged team in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.
(From left) Marsiling-Yew Tee Members of Parliament Mr Alex Yam, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Ms Hany Soh at the PAP's Limbang branch office on Apr 12, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Wallace Woon)
The party then unveiled its slate across the three opposition-held wards of Aljunied GRC, Sengkang GRC and the Hougang single-seat ward the next day.
The media sessions since then have typically featured line-ups for a GRC, along with the adjacent SMCs, which would operate under one town council if elected.
Mr Wong had said that the party's format of unveiling candidates by constituency was chosen as it had worked well before, during the last General Election held before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
"When I looked back at my experiences in the last two general elections, I thought the 2015 way of doing it ... focusing on the constituency and the team that forms that constituency - it could be a single, it could be a GRC, and perhaps the GRC and the adjacent single might do it together - I think that format had worked well and I quite liked that format in 2015," he said.
With the clock now ticking down, the ruling party will head into Wednesday’s Nomination Day with the three GRC line-ups still a mystery.
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The deployment of candidates in these electoral blocs typically features an anchor minister – a full Cabinet minister who will lead the team into the hustings.
While two single-seat wards, Radin Mas and Queenstown, are also yet to be unveiled, these typically do not feature full ministers.
CNA understands the PAP has no plans to unveil its slates for these five remaining constituencies before Nomination Day.
As of now, four Cabinet ministers remain in play for the three GRCs.
In the previous GE, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat were the anchor ministers for Tanjong Pagar GRC and East Coast GRC respectively. The PAP's East Coast GRC team is now expected to include Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong, whose Joo Chiat ward was shifted over in the last review of the nation’s electoral map.
Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on Monday said he remains “available to contribute” in any way PAP secretary-general Lawrence Wong sees fit, after he confirmed he will not be fielded in the new Pasir Ris-Changi GRC.
Two Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Office who were in Tanjong Pagar GRC and East Coast GRC are out of the equation.
Ms Indranee Rajah will move to helm the Pasir Ris-Changi GRC slate, while East Coast GRC's Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman announced his retirement from politics.
Currently, there is no clear anchor minister for Punggol GRC, mirroring the situation in 2020 when East Coast GRC was without its team leader after the retirement of former anchor minister Lim Swee Say.
That year, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat made a surprise eleventh-hour move from Tampines GRC, with the PAP eventually defeating the Workers’ Party there.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat speaking at an SG60 event in East Coast on Apr 19, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Lim Li Ting)
Keeping their cards close to their chests until the last moment, brings strategic advantage to parties fighting an election, observers told CNA.
“In delaying, they can keep their opponents guessing as to who they will field there. If not, they will know who to deploy to counter that particular minister in a GRC,” said National University of Singapore associate professor of political science Bilveer Singh, noting suggestions that Workers’ Party secretary-general Pritam Singh may leave Aljunied GRC to contest somewhere else, following in his predecessor Low Thia Khiang’s footsteps.
An anchor minister is typically the most recognisable member of the team, given his or her prominence at the national level, observers said.
Having “one or two individuals within the team with more public recognition”, helps to cement voters’ impressions of the team, drawing in voters who are not as politically interested but nonetheless recognise political office holders from the news frequently, explained Institute of Policy Studies research fellow Teo Kay Key
In 2020, National Development Minister Desmond Lee had moved from Jurong GRC to West Coast GRC, joining former Cabinet minister S Iswaran on the PAP slate against the Progress Singapore Party’s A-team. They ended up winning the closest contest of that hustings.
On Wednesday, all eyes will be on the party’s slates as they turn up at their respective nomination centres, with nothing confirmed until after the nomination proceedings are completed and finalised.
Yusof Ishak Secondary School, located in Punggol, will be the nomination site for Punggol GRC and East Coast GRC. Tanjong Pagar GRC hopefuls will head to Bendemeer Primary School in Bendemeer Road.
In 2020, Mr Heng’s arrival at St Anthony's Canossian Primary School on the morning of Nomination Day was the first indication that he was standing in East Coast GRC. The school, in Bedok North, was the nomination centre for that constituency, and not his own ward of Tampines GRC.
IMPORTANCE OF THE ANCHOR
“While it is called an ‘anchor minister’, I think the strategy is more like having an ‘anchor’ for each team,” said IPS' Dr Teo.
“This is usually one or two individuals within the team with more public recognition, perhaps because of their office-holder position … or because they have a lot of personal popularity among the constituents and the country.”
An anchor minister brings with him political experience, and the assurance that he will be at the heart of policy-making and helming ministries that could directly impact the lives of voters, said Dr Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst with Solaris Strategies Singapore.
He can also mentor and guide newer and inexperienced members of the team so they learn quickly on the job, especially with constituency and municipal issues, said Mr Malminderjit Singh, managing director of political consultancy Terra Corporate Affairs.
“If the minister is someone who is well-received nationally, voters would likely still vote to send him or her back into office,” said Dr Teo.
“In addition, a proportion of voters actually vote based on the party brand more than the individual team members, so for this group, who actually makes up the team is less important than the fact that the party is contesting in their constituency.”
Dr Mustafa said it will be “interesting” to see the line-up for Punggol GRC, and whether there will be an anchor minister fielded.

PAP’s Janil Puthucheary, Yeo Wan Ling, Sun Xueling, new face Foo Cexiang and Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean at the Punggol Town Family Carnival in One Punggol on Apr 19, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Jeremy Long)
The PAP’s Punggol team potentially includes two political office holders, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health Janil Puthucheary and Minister of State for Home Affairs and Social and Family Development Sun Xueling.
The other incumbent member is Yeo Wan Ling, while new face Foo Cexiang has been active on the ground there.
“It’s a brand new GRC and it's not been tested. Usually they would field a full minister, and I think that's what we can expect in Punggol,” said Dr Mustafa.
“Perhaps Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean may move to Punggol and anchor that GRC.”
MINISTERIAL MOVEMENTS
On Monday, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong acknowledged the contributions of outgoing Cabinet ministers Dr Maliki and Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a Facebook post, and shared valedictory letters to the pair.
He did not mention Senior Minister Teo in the post.
With the ruling party lacking an anchor minister in Punggol GRC and Ms Indranee moving over to Pasir Ris-Changi GRC, speculation is rife that Mr Teo could hop over to helm Punggol GRC.
Ms Indranee’s departure from Tanjong Pagar GRC means that Education Minister Chan remains the sole anchor in the PAP stronghold, which was represented by founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew until his death in 2015.
Meanwhile, East Coast GRC potentially has two anchor ministers in Mr Heng and Mr Tong.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong speaking to the media with PAP members after a walkabout in Fengshan on Apr 12, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Mak Jia Kee)
The ruling party’s deployment of its ministers on the electoral map has always been an intentional and deliberate exercise.
In 2015, with the creation of Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Prime Minister Wong – then the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth representing West Coast GRC – became the first minister who entered politics in 2011 to leave his original seat and lead a team in another.
In 1997, Mr Teo moved from Marine Parade GRC to anchor the newly created Pasir Ris GRC, in what was his first General Election since becoming full minister the year before.
However, observers noted that a team’s anchor may not necessarily be a full Cabinet minister, and could be someone at a senior minister of state level – something which the Punggol team already has.
Dr Mustafa cited the instance of Eunos GRC in 1991, when the four-member constituency was led by Senior Minister of State Tay Eng Soon.
Ultimately, who the anchor minister is or whether there is one in the first place, is likely not a determining factor in voters’ choice, he said.
“In 2015, the PAP grassroots team in Aljunied did very well and came very close to winning it back for the PAP, and they did not have an anchor minister,” he said.
He noted also that in 2020, the PAP’s Sengkang GRC slate featured Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Ng Chee Meng among three political office holders in the team, but they still lost to the WP.
“To some extent, the anchor minister role has become irrelevant, because voters want to know not so much what their representative can do for the nation, but what they can do for them at the local municipal level,” said Assoc Prof Singh.
“You’re also more busy as a minister, so there will be some people who may think you won’t be able to help them at the local level.”
For Cabinet ministers, their reputations — sometimes negative — also precede them if they move constituencies, because they’re always in the national spotlight, said Assoc Prof Singh.
He believed that the “flight to safety” principle no longer exists, whether it’s a familiar anchor minister or the ruling party brand, as shown in the 2020 General Election held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
GAINING POLITICAL LEVERAGE
Observers told CNA that the ruling party might be withholding its slates in those three wards for strategic purposes, as they want to keep their cards close to their chests until the last moment.
This also indicates that those areas are where close fights are expected in the coming hustings.
“It’s more of a political chess game and not revealing it until the very end gains maximum political leverage,” said Dr Mustafa.
He said that not revealing a proposed final line-up leaves the party room to shuffle personnel around on Nomination Day itself.
“As we saw in 2020, they could do a switcheroo on the day itself, and they want to be able to have that opportunity to do it. If they unveil the line-up earlier, then it will be somewhat strange to change it subsequently,” he explained.
WP chief Pritam Singh had said over the weekend that his party was “very mindful” about the signals it sends, when asked about the caution from the PAP in revealing their line-ups in wards such as East Coast GRC ahead of Nomination Day.
"It is very well-known that we are a very small party, and so we have to be mindful how we employ our strategy," he had said.
However, there are cons to this secretive strategy too, noted observers.
The longer voters are kept in suspense, the more uncertainty they will feel as they do not know who is going to represent them, said Dr Mustafa.
New candidates or those who have moved from another constituency may also have a shorter runway to become familiarised with the voters, he added.
“So it is in the interest of all political parties who plan to contest in a particular constituency, to unveil their candidates early enough so that the voters know who they are, and they can create that social bond with the voters,” he said.
SLATES ANNOUNCED
Since Apr 12, the ruling party has been gradually unveiling the likely candidates it will field for the May 3 polls.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had kicked things off in his own ward by naming an unchanged team in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.

(From left) Marsiling-Yew Tee Members of Parliament Mr Alex Yam, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Ms Hany Soh at the PAP's Limbang branch office on Apr 12, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Wallace Woon)
The party then unveiled its slate across the three opposition-held wards of Aljunied GRC, Sengkang GRC and the Hougang single-seat ward the next day.
The media sessions since then have typically featured line-ups for a GRC, along with the adjacent SMCs, which would operate under one town council if elected.
Mr Wong had said that the party's format of unveiling candidates by constituency was chosen as it had worked well before, during the last General Election held before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
"When I looked back at my experiences in the last two general elections, I thought the 2015 way of doing it ... focusing on the constituency and the team that forms that constituency - it could be a single, it could be a GRC, and perhaps the GRC and the adjacent single might do it together - I think that format had worked well and I quite liked that format in 2015," he said.
With the clock now ticking down, the ruling party will head into Wednesday’s Nomination Day with the three GRC line-ups still a mystery.
Continue reading...