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.
Fortunately, the People's Action Party (PAP) won with 72.9% of the vote. The team of candidates - led by Goh - were subsequently declared as the MPs for Marine Parade GRC, thus ensuring Goh's retention of his office as Prime Minister.
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.[1]
At the 1991 general election, Goh promised to hold a by-election in 12 to 18 months’ time to allow J. B. Jeyaretnam, of the Workers’ Party, to contest a seat in parliament. Jeyaretnam was unable to contest in the 1991 general election due to a parliamentary ban which expired 2 months after the 1991 general election.[2][3]
The by-election took place 11 years after the previous one, which at the time was the longest interval between by-elections. This would be surpassed by the 2012 Hougang by-election, that took place nearly two decades after this by-election.
The election deposit was set at $6000 per candidate. Similar to previous elections, the election deposit will be forfeited if the particular candidate had failed to secure at least 12.5% or one-eighth of the votes.