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GE2015 rallies: The heavy rotation topics

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We are now at the halfway mark for the 2015 General Election campaign trail.

Every party — and independent candidate, Han Hui Hui —​ as had a chance to convince Singaporeans why they should vote for them.

After four days of rallies, we noticed a pattern forming of certain issues and certain actions that would arise regardless of party.

So we created Rally Bingo using the most common subjects.

 

 

Saturday's rallies have kicked off. If you are following live, why not play our Rally Bingo game? Cross off the subjects...

Posted by The New Paper on Saturday, 5 September 2015

 

This was the result after the Saturday rallies.

Sure, we didn't strike bingo but we still have time before Polling Day.

 

1) AHPETC

Arguably the most popular acronym of this election season, AHPETC has dominated the campaigning period.

With the People's Action Party accusing Workers' Party of mishandling town council finances, WP has often brought it up.

On Saturday (Sept 5), WP's secretary general Low Thia Khiang held out a print out of the audit from the Punggol East Town Council before it was handed over to WP in 2013.

According to that sheet, Punggol East was $280,000 in deficit.

That revelation means that AHPETC will further dominate the election news for the coming days.

 

2) Making a speech in dialect

Making a speech in dialect is common for politicians who wish to connect to residents on the ground.

But it really takes on a new dimension when minority candidates use it at rallies.

SingFirst's Jurong GRC candidate Sukdeu Singh spoke a fair bit of Hokkien that, going by the cheers, was a definite crowd pleaser.

Earlier this week, WP's Aljunied candidate Pritam Singh also gave a speech in Mandarin to favourable sounds from the audience.

Mr Low even commented that Mr Singh's mandarin was "not bad".

 

3) Foreign talent

Some of the candidates stressed that they are not anti-foreigner but plenty of voices were lent to the topic.

The foreign talent and immigration issue is something that has been brought up by all parties — particularly the opposition parties.

Reform Party's Ang Mo Kio GRC candidate Gilbert Goh has been outspoken about his feelings towards foreigners.

He talked of how foreigners have stolen the jobs of Singaporeans.

By way of proving that he is not xenophobic he said that he has a Hong Kong-born friend.

 

4) Please welcome to the stage...

Just like Taylor Swift, the PAP has also brought in some big guns to its rallies. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been seen at two rallies so far - Tanjong Pagar and Aljunied.

 

 

And Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was yesterday seen at the rally in Petir Road for Bukit Panjang SMC and Holland-Bukit Timah GRC.

But given the rules on who can join a party on stage it's unlikely that they will be any truly surprise guests appearing. 

Singapore ElectionsSingaporebingoUncategorisedforeign talentImmigrationAHPETC