It's election season 2025 in Yishun and Singapore! We want to use this post to give friends around the world a "slice-of-life" peek on what residents in Yishun see and do during the election and campaigning period in Yishun. We focus more on the specific process and happenings, and bear no political views in this post. 

✨ Quick Facts

Yishun, also known affectionately as Nee Soon, is part of the Nee Soon GRC (Group Representation Constituency), a large electoral division consisting of  Chong Pang, Nee Soon Central, Nee Soon East, Nee Soon South and Nee Soon Link, all administered by the Nee Soon Town Council. In other words, residents staying within this electoral division will vote to elect their group of 5 parliament representatives to represent them at the parliament for the next 4-5 years. 

The Nee Soon GRC is one of the nation's largest electoral divisions a voter base of 151,634 residents and 5 parliamentary seats up for grabs, trailing only Ang Mo Kio and West Coast-Jurong West GRCs in size. 

✨ Nomination of Candidates

Election season starts with nomination of candidates on April 23, 2025. For 2025, two parties have been nominated for election in Nee Soon GRC - the incumbent People's Action Party (PAP) which was founded since 1954, and the Red Dot United (RDU) party which was founded in 2020.

✨ The Candidates

Leading the PAP Nee Soon GRC team is Minister for Law, K Shanmugam, and his team of fresh first-timers: Goh Hanyan, Lee Hui Ying, Syed Harun Alhabsyi and Jackson Lam Weiliang. On the Red Dot United Nee Soon GRC team, is the party secretary general, Ravi Philemon and his team members: Syed Alwi Ahmad, Pang Heng Chuan, David Foo and Sharon Lin.

✨ Campaigning Starts..

Campaign period officially spans from April 24 to May 1, 2025. During the campaign window, candidates and their teams take to the ground in an all-out effort to engage and connect with voters.  Campaigning in Nee Soon is a vibrant blend of face-to-face, printed media and digital media outreach. Along the roads and walkways, residents will see a colourful variety of traditional election advertising media, such as posters and banners.

Posters and banners 🚩— both small and large — are carefully regulated. For every 250 electors, one small banner or poster may be displayed, confined to a maximum size of 1.75 metres by 1.2 metres. Larger advertisements, which can be as big as 9 metres wide, are allowed at a ratio of one for every 12,500 electors. These visual elements lend a festive yet focused atmosphere to the town, offering a daily reminder of the civic moment at hand.

Party pamphlets 📚 - Every household in Nee Soon received a mini-booklet from the PAP Nee Soon GRC Team introducing each candidate, the party's past achievements in Nee Soon GRC and the upcoming plans. It's 36 pages long, not sure if costs a lot to print for 35,000 to 40,000 households here.

Walk-abouts 🚶‍➡️— Beyond printed materials, candidates conduct door-to-door visits and public-space walkabouts sessions as early as 8am in the morning, offering personal interaction and informal conversation. This hands-on approach allows residents to ask questions and understand the people behind the manifestos. Leaflets and pamphlets further supplement this face-to-face engagement, often handed out at hawker centres, MRT stations, and other community nodes in Yishun.

Perambulating Vehicles 🚚 — Adding to the energy of the campaign are vehicular broadcasts. Candidates may apply for Perambulating Vehicle (PV) permits to drive through the neighbourhoods, amplifying their messages via loudspeakers. These roving soundscapes of slogans and speeches are a familiar part of the Singaporean election soundscape.

✨ Town Rallies - Highlight of the Election

Finally, rally speeches 📢—  you can watch them on Youtube or attend the rallies in person to feel the vibes and fervour of fellow Yishun residents at the rally grounds. So both contesting parties will hold one rally event each on different nights (from 7pm to 10pm) in Yishun to introduce their team physically and articulate their vision for Yishun in the next five years to come. For 2025, the rally dates for the PAP party and Red Dot United are 29 April and 1 May respectively.

Rally Ground Venue

The rally grounds in 2025 are the open field next to Yishun's Futsal Arena as well as the Yishun stadium - a multi-purpose stadium with a capacity of 3,400 and within walking distance from Khatib MRT station in Yishun. Rental rates for stadiums start from $1,647, while open fields will cost at least $109.

At the PAP rally, you can also find the familiar Yishun mobile ice cream seller dishing out free ice cream to attendees.

What happens at rallies?

Once you enter the rally ground, you can feel the energy of the party supporters, chanting party slogans 📢 and waving supporting placards. You can see party buntings 🚩at almost every corner of the stadium.

The rally stage is set at the field of the stadium. Supporters can choose to sit at the stadium grandstand or stand at the tracks nearer to the rally stage. So far, in Nee Soon, we have not seen capacity crowds seen in other voting constituencies - thus, there is ample space to maneuver around the grandstand or navigate right up to the front of the rally stage.

Once the rally begins, the MC then invites each candidate to stump at the front of the stage to rally supporters and sway undecided voters.

✨ Cooling-off Day

The Cooling-off Day (May 2, 2025) is the day before Polling Day. As the name suggests, it is a 24-hour pause in political activity, mandated by law, to "cool-off" sentiments after several days of heated campaigning and rallies. Thus, active forms of campaigning activities, such as canvassing, walkabouts, door-to-door visits and even boosting online election advertising, are prohibited. 

✨ Polling Cards and Procedure

Prior to Polling Day, everyone will have received their polling card package in the mailboxes. The package contains the polling cards for all family members as well as instructions on how the polling procedure will be conducted on the actual day.

✨ Polling Day

On Polling Day (May 3, 2025), everyone heads to their designated polling stations to vote. At the polling station, voters will be given a ballot paper to mark their choice of the political party with a cross 'X' in a voting booth, before dropping the ballot paper into a sealed ballot box. 

Even though each ballot paper has a serial number for security and to prevent cheating, the law says the ballot papers can only be opened by a court order, and only under very strict conditions like investigating serious election issues. After six months, the sealed ballot boxes are destroyed without ever being opened.

The full process is observed and witnessed by representatives from the various contesting parties. It is affirmed by all political parties that voting in Singapore is confidential.

✨ End of Election Period

After Polling Day, all campaign posters and banners are promptly removed and life returns to normal for all in Yishun. 

Hope this gives you a good glimpse how elections work in Yishun (or Nee Soon GRC).😊