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SINGAPORE: The Workers’ Party (WP) was seen as more credible in the 2020 General Election than in previous polls, while there was a slight drop in the proportion of voters who found the Popular Action Party (PAP) credible, a post-election. Survey conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
The PAP was still viewed as the most credible political party in Singapore by the citizens surveyed by IPS, but the proportion of people who agreed or strongly agreed that the PAP was a credible party dropped from 93% in 2015 to 86% this year.
WP came in second, with 79 percent of respondents saying they found the party credible, compared to 71 percent in 2015.
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These were the results of one of the questions in the Singapore Policy Perception Survey, which surveyed the attitudes of 4,027 citizens from July 11 to August 21. They were featured in a forum via Facebook live on Thursday (October 1).
In the survey, respondents were asked to indicate the credibility level of each of the six political parties in GE2020, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. Only the six parties with the highest numerical votes were included in the survey to avoid respondent fatigue, the researchers said.
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Despite being a newcomer, the Singapore Progress Party (PSP) ranked third, with 60 percent of respondents agreeing that it was credible, while the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) ranked fourth. with 45 percent.
While this was roughly the same as 46 percent in 2015, the proportion of respondents who found the SDP not credible fell from 43 percent in 2015 to 29 percent this year. More people felt “neutral” about the party than before.
Then came the National Solidarity Party with 27% of respondents who found it credible, and Peoples Voice with 26%.
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The investigation was conducted by a team led by Dr. Gillian Koh, IPS’s deputy director of research. The other team members are Dr. Teo Kay Key, Postdoctoral Fellow at the IPS Social Lab, Research Associate Damien Huang, and Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser from the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore.
PAP CREDIBILITY FALLS IN MIDDLE AGE
The team noted that there was a 13 percentage point drop in those ages 40 to 49 who said they “agree” or “strongly agree” that PAP was a credible party. There were also drops in the party’s credibility rating in low to lower middle income and among those living in one- to three-bedroom apartments from the Housing Board.
The biggest change for the WP was in the “strongly agree” category, which jumped from 8% in 2015 to 20% in 2020.
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When examining the results by age, more people in the 30-34 age group and more older people found the WP to be credible in GE2020. There were also increases among PMET voters, those with only postsecondary educational qualifications, and among HDB one- to three-bedroom apartment dwellers.
“These findings reinforce the sense that the issue of livelihoods, especially for low- to middle-income households, influenced support for the PAP and WP. Respondents in the highest occupancy service class (PMET) found the WP credible, but so did those in the lowest housing category, meaning that there were proportions of respondents at both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum who found the WP credible. WP, “the research team said.
Dr. Teo highlighted that the credibility ranking of the parties is the same as their ranking by the number of votes received in GE2020.
The PAP won 83 parliamentary seats in GE2020 with 61.2 percent of the popular vote and WP, which only contested 21 seats, won 10 of them with about 11 percent of the total vote.
READ: GE2020: The Workers Party wins the new Sengkang GRC with 52.13% of the votes
Neither party won any room in the July 10 election, but the PSP sent two of its candidates to Parliament as non-electoral members of Parliament after narrowly losing the West Coast GRC to the PAP.
Ten opposition parties and an independent candidate contested the General Elections. The other parties were the Reform Party, the Singapore People’s Party, the Singapore Democratic Alliance, Red Dot United, and the People’s Power Party.
