When election posters went up across Singapore yesterday, people noticed one thing right away: A poster of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong appeared everywhere.

He is leading the People’s Action Party (PAP) team in Ang Mo Kio GRC, but posters showing just him are on lamp-posts from Jurong to Changi and Woodlands to Tanjong Pagar.

Singapore People’s Party candidate Lina Chiam was unhappy to find herself staring at Mr Lee’s picture in front of her office in Potong Pasir, where she hopes to unseat the PAP’s Mr Sitoh Yih Pin.

She grumbled that he appeared to be telling Potong Pasir voters he was standing in the single-member constituency too. “When they see PM, somehow… they will vote in a (certain) way,” she said.

… But this might just be the reaction the PAP had hoped for, said the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies‘ Associate Professor Alan Chong. “He is staking his reputation on this election and saying, ‘vote for me and my team’,” he said.