The elections are coming...the big question here in Singa is not who will win, but whether the PAP will make a clean-sweep of all the seats this year. Seems rather implausible in a "democracy" doesn't it? The local news, which is controlled by the PAP of course, is consumed mostly with announcing the new PAP candidates these days. They've got a good cross-section of people, including business people, doctors, etc. And a plea has gone out in search of a good Malay candidate for one of the seats... you see, there is also a racial quota system of sorts for the elections because in some of the districts they have to run as part of a GRC (Group Representation Committee) instead of individually. GRCs must be composed of a certain number of minority candidates (this is also one of the reasons that it is so difficult for opposition parties to succeed in elections- they have to win an entire GRC, not just an individual candidate). The other interesting tidbit about Singapore elections is that the current government doesn't have to announce when exactly an election will be, until 7 days prior to the election... you just get a vague idea that it is coming when the campaigning begins.