When was grc introduced

If this is constitutionally permitted, it follows that no by-election is required to be called in a situation where all minority members in Parliament vacate their seats before Parliament is dissolved, and the purpose of the GRC scheme will be completely frustrated. On the face of it, Article 49 1 only provides for an election for the vacant seat and does not contain an obligation to call an election for all the seats in a GRC.

Further, Article 49 1 is intended to deal with the filling of vacancies and not intended as a vacancy-creating provision. This would mean that the government has no constitutional obligation to fill vacant seats in a GRC even when all the seats are vacated. The Court began its analysis by observing that Article 49 1 was ambiguous in relation to whether and how it applied to GRCs.

This is because the article had first been enacted in when the GRC scheme did not exist and its wording remained largely unchanged since then. The Parliamentary debates in respect of the PEA and the Constitutional Amendment Bill made it clear that Parliament did not intend for the government to be obliged to call a by-election in the event of a single vacancy in a GRC but only when all members in the GRC have vacated their seats.

Given the lack of clarity on how Parliament intended to achieve this desired outcome, Interpretation 2 was rejected. This left the Court with Interpretations 1 and 3. The Court preferred Interpretation 3. The Court observed that during the debates in Parliament in respect of the introduction of the GRC scheme, Parliament had specifically considered the risk of minority representation being diminished when a minority member seat is vacated.

However, Parliament decided that this risk was an acceptable trade-off for preventing a member of a GRC from otherwise being able to hold the other members of that GRC to ransom.

The interpretation that Article 49 1 is inapplicable to the filling of GRC vacancies when GRCs are made up of individual seats appears inconsistent with the general wording in Article 49 1 , especially since it does not exempt GRCs from its applicability. Respectfully, what the Court did limited the scope of Article 49 1 in a way that its express wording does not.

Of course, it does not mean that the Constitution should be interpreted in a strict textual or pedantic manner as absurd outcomes can result from such interpretations. We should bear in mind that the GRC scheme was introduced to guarantee minority representation in Parliament. If the fundamental purpose of the GRC scheme is to guarantee minority representation in Parliament, it makes no sense to guarantee minority representation only at the point of election but not throughout the term of Parliament, and with no corresponding mechanism to guarantee minority representation throughout.

Under-representation in Parliament comes in the form of having one less voice in Parliament and fewer parliamentary questions filed since each Member can only file five parliamentary questions per Parliamentary session.

On the ground, residents also have one less Town Councillor to manage the municipal affairs of the constituency. The consequence of permitting casual vacancies in a GRC is to disproportionately increase the elector-to-MP ratio. That voters should be represented by a full slate of elected MPs in a GRC is a right and not a privilege. A principled approach that prioritises the needs of residents in a GRC demands that a by-election be called to fill any casual vacancies within a GRC.

GE made it clear that a new political equilibrium has been set in motion and, more significantly, that entrenched political levellers such as the GRC scheme may be increasingly outdated and may not be responsive to the needs and aspirations of younger generations. The GRC scheme was a product of a particular set of socio-political circumstances which may have suited the needs of a particular generation.

His research at Howard was in the areas of inorganic biochemistry, porphyrin chemistry, geochemistry, and magnetic resonance. In he moved to the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a staff member in the energetic materials program. Director from Alexander M. Alex was born in Marlboro, New Hampshire December 13, He moved to Westerly, Rhode Island at age He took his B.

He earned his Ph. Alex served on the chemistry faculty at the University of Rhode Island from to and was Chair of the Chemistry Department from to In that summer of , Alex Cruickshank spent 10 weeks as the site manager for the Gordon Research Conferences and his wife, Irene, served as Conference secretary.

When George Parks retired as Director, Alex assumed that position. He served as Director until his retirement in a total of 47 years of service with GRC. Cruickshank Lectures to honor Alex's service. GRC Conference Chairs nominate exceptional speakers from their conferences to be considered by the Board for this prestigious lectureship which is awarded annually in the Biological, Chemical, and Physical sciences.

Alex died in June Director from Neil E. Gordon was the founder of the Gordon Research Conferences. From a young age, Gordon enjoyed his studies, math in particular, and was often seen doing household chores with a book in hand.

A studious young man, Gordon quickly set his sights on a career in academia. After graduating from high school in just two years, he attended Syracuse Business School, then Syracuse University, where he received his Ph. Bachelor of Philosophy in , majoring in mathematics and minoring in chemistry. After two years, Gordon was promoted to professor and also asked to chair the chemistry department, where he served for eight years. Building on experiences with organizing scientific discussions as an undergraduate, Gordon took over an intermittent set of meetings that had been held in the chemistry department since the mids.

In , Gordon organized the first formal conference; its success in stimulating discussion on various cutting-edge scientific topics led to additional week-long conferences in subsequent years. Starting in , the conferences were held on nearby Gibson Island. To the surprise of colleagues and family, Gordon resigned from his position at Johns Hopkins University and accepted a post as Chairman of the Chemistry Department at Central College in Missouri in In the spring of , Gordon left Central College for a post as Chairman of the Chemistry Department at Wayne University in Detroit, taking with him the Hooker Scientific Library and continuing his participation in the research conferences.

In , Gordon resigned as director of the Conferences. In , shortly before his death, the research conferences were formally renamed the Gordon Research Conferences in his honor.

By law, the President designates the GRCs for which at least one of the MPs in the electoral division must belong to one of these minority racial communities. However, the number of GRCs that can be designated as those belonging to the Malay community cannot be more than three-fifths the total number of GRCs, rounded to the next higher whole number.

The GRC system was established in to ensure that the minority racial communities in Singapore will always be represented in Parliament. There are a total of 2,, electors in the Registers of Electors of the 31 electoral divisions as of 15 Apr The list of electoral divisions and the number of electors in each electoral division is set out below.