SINGAPORE, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Though Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long has not announced the exact date of the next general election, the city state is gearing up for it over the past few weeks.

    Members of Parliament (MPs) from the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) visited residents and hawkers centers in their respective constituencies on the past weekends, announcing community upgrading plans and asking for voters' needs.

    PAP, which got 75 percent of the votes and gained 82 out of the 84 parliamentary seats in the last election held in November 2001, aims to win all the 23 constituencies this time.

    About one week ago, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was tasked by Prime Minister Lee to help win back the two opposition wards of Potong Pasir and Hougang for PAP in the next general election.

    Goh held a dialogue with residents in Hougang to listen to their problems and needs and visited Potong Pasir in the past two days.

    A couple of new faces have been seen accompanying PAP MPs in community events in the past few days, arousing a lot of guesses about whether they are new PAP candidates for the next election.

    However, the new faces were tight-lipped about it, indicating that the result would be announced by the party in the next few weeks.

    PAP has introduced six new candidates for the coming parliamentary election in two batches since March 23. More are expected to be made known to the public in the next few weeks.

    More than 20 have been chosen from a pool of some 270 people as new PAP candidates, among whom are a significant number of minority and female ones, according to Prime Minister Lee, who is also PAP's secretary-general.

    As new faces are coming out, some veteran PAP MPs including former Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan have indicated their retirement from politics to facilitate the so-called "party renewal."

    However, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong have expressed their resolution to stand in the next election.

    As PAP is busy boosting an familiarity between its new election candidates and the voters, the opposition parties are negotiating with one another to map out their election plans.

    The major opposition parties, including the Workers' Party, the Singapore Democratic Party, the Singapore Democratic Alliance and the Democratic Progressive Party, have decided to contest up to 57 seats this time, instead of adopting the "by-election" strategy again as they did in the last two general elections in which they contested less than half of the seats available and returned the PAP to power on Nomination Day.