PARTIES would have to do as well as – or better than – their last outing in 2015 for their campaign in the coming general election (GE) to be judged as a success, political watchers say.

For the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), GE2020 comes after it clinched 69.9 per cent of the overall vote in 2015, up from its record low of 60.1 per cent in 2011.

The unprecedented coronavirus crisis this year could create a voter “flight to safety” to the incumbent PAP, observers noted.

Calling the pandemic a “fear factor”, Alan Chong, Asociate Professor at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said it could have a similar effect as the death of elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew in 2015.

“I think the PAP would look to reprising the percentage they obtained in 2015, if Covid-19 works in their favour,” he told The Business Times.