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NEWS
May 7, 2011
Singaporeans head to the polls
Voters wait in line for their turn at a polling station at Block 555A Hougang Avenue 51. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

SINGAPOREANS trekked to polling booths across the island as soon as they opened at 8am on Saturday.

Voting at 732 polling stations, which include Housing Board void decks, community centres and schools, closes at 8pm.

A record 2.21 million Singaporeans will be heading to the ballot box on Saturday, many for the first time

This tops the previous peak in 1988 when 1.37 million Singaporeans cast their votes.

At the last general election in 2006, 1.22 million people voted when 47 out of 84 seats were contested.

The bumper number this time is the result of the strong challenge from the opposition parties, which are contesting an unprecedented 82 out of the 87 seats in Parliament, with only Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's Tanjong Pagar GRC unopposed.

The votes cast will be counted at 154 counting centres, shortly after voting has ended.

The People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore for 52 unbroken years, is facing a formidable challenge in several seats, with many believing that the opposition may surpass its previous best performance of four seats in 1991, and shaving the PAP's share of the popular vote to 61 per cent.

One of the factors that make the results hard to predict in this election is that many areas are being contested for the first time.