SINGAPORE: Voters will head to the polls in 33 electoral divisions in the 2025 General Election, up from 31 in the last polls, after recommended changes to electoral boundaries released on Tuesday (Mar 11).

The Singapore government has accepted the proposals by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC).

Here’s how the battle lines have been drawn.

1. POPULATION SHIFTS

There are 2,753,226 electors in the registers, as of Feb 1. This was 101,791 more than the 2,651,435 electors at the 2020 GE.

In the EBRC’s 2020 report, the increase in electors was 134,256 from the 2015 registers.

The EBRC on Tuesday said population growth in recent years was not evenly distributed across electoral divisions.

“Due to population shifts and new housing developments, some (electoral divisions) such as Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Sembawang GRC, Tampines GRC, Hong Kah North SMC and Potong Pasir SMC have experienced higher growth than others,” it said.

2. MORE MPS, MORE CONSTITUENCIES

Singapore’s next parliament will have 97 seats, up from 93 currently.

The 33 electoral divisions comprise 15 Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) and 18 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs).

That is one more SMC and one more GRC than in 2020, in line with predictions. But some existing wards have also been removed or redrawn.

3. MAJOR CHANGES TO GRCS

Gone from the map are two GRCs – Pasir Ris-Punggol and Jurong.

There are new GRCs in Pasir Ris-Changi, Punggol, Jurong East-Bukit Batok, West Coast and Marine Parade.

The changes largely arise from population shifts in Punggol and Tengah, due to new housing developments.

The new Punggol GRC was formed by carving out estates from Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC – which has seen the largest increase in electors since the last GE – and merging them with Punggol West SMC.

The new Pasir Ris-Changi GRC was created by merging the remainder of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC with adjacent polling districts in East Coast GRC.

The new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC, meanwhile, absorbs the entirety of Jurong GRC, Bukit Batok SMC, Yuhua SMC, as well as Bukit Batok West estates in Hong Kah North SMC.

Those were the estates remaining in Hong Kah North after the Tengah estates were absorbed into Chua Chu Kang GRC.

Elsewhere, West Coast GRC will become West Coast-Jurong West GRC after taking in estates from the neighbouring Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC and losing polling districts in Harbourfront, Sentosa, Dover and Telok Blangah estates.

Marine Parade GRC will be renamed Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC after absorbing MacPherson SMC and parts of Mountbatten and Potong Pasir SMCs.

East Coast GRC, meanwhile, retains its name but its boundaries have been redrawn to take in adjacent polling districts from Marine Parade GRC, after losing its Loyang and Flora estates to Pasir Ris-Changi GRC.

4. NEW SMCS

There are six new single-seat constituencies.

Bukit Gombak SMC was carved out of Chua Chu Kang GRC to accommodate future population growth in Tengah.

Jalan Kayu SMC was carved out of Ang Mo Kio GRC, which has the most electors of any electoral division; while a new Queenstown SMC was formerly part of Tanjong Pagar GRC.

Jurong Central SMC was carved out of the new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC.

In view of population growth in Sembawang and Tampines GRCs, the EBRC also recommended new SMCs in Sembawang West and Tampines Changkat.

Five SMCs in Bukit Batok, Hong Kah North, MacPherson, Punggol West and Yuhua have been scrubbed from the map after being absorbed into GRCs.

5. UNTOUCHED CONSTITUENCIES

The sweeping changes meant only five GRCs and four SMCs were left untouched.

These are Bishan-Toa Payoh, Jalan Besar, Marsiling-Yew Tee, Nee Soon and Sengkang GRCs; and Bukit Panjang, Hougang, Marymount and Pioneer SMCs.

6. MORE DOUBLE-BARRELLED NAMES

The EBRC noted the use of double-barrelled names to “better reflect the identities of geographical areas” in GRCs.

It recommended continuing this practice for the GRCs of Jurong East-Bukit Batok, Pasir Ris-Changi, West Coast-Jurong West and Marine Parade-Braddell Heights.

7. MAINTAINING PROPORTIONS

The EBRC was also instructed to “keep the average size of GRCs, the proportion of Members of Parliament (MPs) elected from SMCs and the average ratio of electors to elected MPs, all at about the same as that in the last General Election”.

The average size of GRCs in 2020 was 4.65. It is now slightly lower at 4.56.

In 2020, SMCs contributed 15.1 per cent of the total number of MPs, or 14 out of 93. This figure is now 15.5 per cent, or 15 out of 97.

On average, each MP represented 28,510 electors in 2020. The ratio has fallen to 28,384 electors in the latest report.

Click on the map to explore the boundary changes:

GE2025: 7 things to know from Singapore’s electoral boundaries report