Election spending in GE2025 outstrips that for GE2020
As with previous elections, the bulk of expenses this time, about $4.75 million, went towards non-online election advertising. PHOTO: ST FILE
Election spending in GE2025 outstrips that for GE2020
SINGAPORE – Some $10.7 million was spent on campaigning for the 2025 General Election, with about three-quarters of candidates having reported their expenses to the Elections Department (ELD).
This figure already exceeds the total spending of $9 million by all candidates at the 2020 polls.
As with previous elections, the bulk of the expenses this time, about $4.75 million, went towards non-online election advertising, such as the printing of posters, banners and fliers.
Another $2.01 million was spent on online election advertising, which includes posts on social media and websites and the boosting of such posts.
With the return of physical rallies this time – after they were paused for the previous election due to the Covid-19 pandemic – candidates spent $1.33 million on holding these events.
These amounts were calculated based on the expenses of 164 out of the 211 candidates, most of which were uploaded to ELD's website on June 13 after their submissions were announced on the Government Gazette.
They comprised election returns of candidates from the ruling People's Action Party, the National Solidarity Party (NSP), People's Alliance for Reform (PAR), People's Power Party (PPP), Progress Singapore Party, Red Dot United (RDU), the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and Singapore People's Party (SPP), as well as two independent candidates.
The remaining 47 candidates have until June 16 to submit their expenses. None of the Workers' Party candidates' expenses are available for inspection on the ELD's website so far.
The return of physical rallies saw political parties divert some spending on print ads to rally-related expenses, while spending on online ads saw a smaller dip.
Print advertising fell from about 60 per cent of election-related spending in 2020 to 44.4 per cent in 2025.
Online advertising represented about 18.8 per cent of candidates' expenses at GE2025, compared with 22 per cent at the 2020 polls.
On average, each candidate spent $64,959, with 19 candidates reporting no expenses, and NSP president Reno Fong reporting the highest expenses at $160,000.
Based on expenses declared so far, the PAP had an average spending of $96,667 per candidate, or close to 30 per cent higher than at the last general election.
Among the opposition parties, the SDP spent $50,009, PSP spent $33,965, NSP spent $31,320, SPP spent $23,261, RDU spent $15,703, SUP spent $6,564, PAR spent $3,614, and PPP spent $2,017 per candidate.
Among the PAP teams contesting group representation constituencies and which have submitted their expenses, the West Coast-Jurong West GRC team was the biggest spenders.
The team, led by Minister for Education Desmond Lee, spent $602,708 in all. The largest portion, or $290,290, went towards non-online election advertising.
The PSP team it faced, led by party chairman Tan Cheng Bock, spent $180,560, with non-online election advertising accounting for the bulk of it at $98,540.
The PAP took the constituency with 59.99 per cent of vote, against its PSP opponent's 40.01 per cent.
The next biggest spender among the PAP's GRC teams was the Punggol GRC team, led by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, which spent $541,854 in all.
However, unlike in West Coast-Jurong West GRC, more than half of the team's spending – $301,953 – went to online election advertising.
The team won in the constituency with 55.17 per cent of the vote, against the WP's 44.83 per cent.
PAP's third highest spending GRC team was the Aljunied GRC team, which spent $524,312. It lost in the constituency with 40.29 per cent of the vote against the WP team's 59.71 per cent.
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