nick’s (n)-line life

Yep, after much build-up, today is the big day in Singapore:

IBN Live — Polls opened at 0000 GMT at more than 400 voting stations and were to close 12 hours later. By late morning, one-fifth of the 1.2 million registered voters had cast their compulsory votes, the elections department said.

The Contenders:

and the currently ruling PAP:

Results are expected to start coming in later this evening. Between them opposition parties are vying for more than half the available seats, in 2001 it was only one third. The results of this election may well send the PAP a message and become the catalyst for change in Singapore:

Reuters — Even at 82, Singapore’s elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew relishes a fight. [...] he is once again busy blasting the opposition and silencing his critics with lawsuits.

One voter expresses his thoughts:

Anatomy Blog — Seriously, I always thought elections in Singapore are jokes man. What is this? No fixed election dates and districts. Only announce the actual election dates damn close to the actual thing, like the opposition party can prepare…as if! Then before the election, redraw all the GRCs and what not. Live in Holland become Bukit Batok GRC. Wah take bus also half an hour then reach loh. Sigh… what can I say?

I also bumped into an interesting comparison of the size of PAP and SDP rallies and another discussing their voting process here.