# 1992 Marine Parade by-election

The by-election was held on 19 December 1992. The by-election was to replace as Goh decided to hold a by-election in a safe constituency with the best chances of winning for political self-renewal to get people of ministerial calibre to join the government under PAP.
This was the first time that a Singaporean Prime Minister vacated his or her own constituency to stand for a by-election thereby producing a risk of Goh losing the premiership in under two years, in the event he lost the by-election.
On polling day, the People's Action Party (PAP) team of four were re-elected as the MPs for Marine Parade GRC, thus ensuring Goh's retention of his office as Prime Minister. The party was re-sworn in Parliament a month later on 18 January 1993.

## Background

At the time of this by-election, both Deputy Prime Ministers, Ong Teng Cheong and Lee Hsien Loong, were suffering from cancer. Goh decided to hold a by-election in a safe constituency with the best chances of winning for "political self-renewal" to get people of "ministerial calibre" to join the government under PAP. While Goh, Othman bin Haron Eusofe and Matthias Yao were running again in the same constituency, Lim Chee Onn was replaced with Teo Chee Hean, the former chief of the Singapore navy, for the by-election. Similarly, Singapore Democratic Party, then the largest opposition party, also introduced a widely-charismatic National University of Singapore psychology lecturer Chee Soon Juan who led his team into the election.
At the 1991 general election, Goh promised to hold a by-election in 12 to 18 months' time to allow Workers’ Party secretary-general J. B. Jeyaretnam, to contest a seat in parliament. Jeyaretnam was unable to contest in that election at the time while serving a five-year parliamentary ban which expired two months later. However, the party ultimately did not participate as one candidate turned up late on nominations on 9 December.

## Results

By-election 1992: Marine Parade GRC :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | PAP | Goh Chok Tong Othman bin Haron Eusofe Teo Chee Hean Matthias Yao | 48,965 | 72.9 | −4.3 |
| | SDP | Chee Soon Juan Low Yong Nguan Mohamed Shariff bin Yahya Ashleigh Seow | 16,447 | 24.5 | +24.5 |
| | NSP | Ken Sen Tan Chee Kian Sarry bin Hassan Yong Choon Poh | 950 | 1.4 | +1.4 |
| | SJP | Theng Chin Eng Yen Kim Khooi Suib bin Abdul Rahman Lim Teong Howe | 764 | 1.1 | −21.7 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 30,804 | 45.9 | −8.5 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 68,436 | 92.5 | −1.1 |
| | PAP hold | PAP hold | Swing | -4.3 | |

## Aftermath

Following the by-election, Chee Soon Juan had received acclaim in public interest towards their supporters of Singapore Democratic Party, but on the following year, a party dispute ensued between him and Chiam See Tong; Chiam was expelled from the party's CEC but won a lawsuit to retain his Potong Pasir SMC seat and his position on procedure grounds, which lead to the formation of Singapore People's Party. Chee then became the party's Secretary-General till this day, though the party were unsuccessful on winning seats in subsequent attempts, including MacPherson SMC where he publicly challenged Matthias Yao in the next election.
The Marine Parade seat would not be challenged again until 2011 where National Solidarity Party contested there. The next instance where a GRC would face a multi-cornered contest was in the 2020 election, where both Singapore Democratic Alliance and the new party, Peoples Voice, challenged Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, which coincidentally, the PAP team also consist of Teo Chee Hean. The next by-election where SDP would be involved with was in 2016, with Chee facing against Murali Pillai in the seat of Bukit Batok SMC.