They are eyeing all the nine Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) and nine out of the 14 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs).

    According to Singapore's laws, the registered electors in a SMC will vote for a single individual to be their MP while those in a GRC will vote for a group of three to six individuals to be their MPs. There are now only five-member and six-member GRCs in the city state.

    To deploy their comparatively small number of candidates in the best possible way, the opposition parties have been balancing their strengthen in different constituencies.

    The aim is to meet the number of candidates required to contest each GRC on the one hand and, on the other, to avoid three-cornered competition in certain wards, which will reduce their chances of victory.

    Some leaders of the opposition parties have also begun to visit the constituencies in which they are supposed to stand in contests against PAP candidates.

    So far, neither PAP nor the opposition parties has unveiled their confirmed candidate lists for each ward.

    The general public in Singapore, especially young people, are looking forward to voting in the coming parliamentary election since a considerable proportion of them have never voted before either because of the opposition parties' "by-election" strategy or because of their age.

    A recent survey commissioned by The Straits Times, a local English daily, shows that about 70 percent of young Singaporeans are keen to vote at the next election.

    Of Singapore's some 4 million population, nearly 2.16 million, including more than 1,000 overseas voters, are now eligible to vote in the forthcoming election.

    As it has been announced that the Singapore Parliament, whose current five-year term will end in 2007, is to resume sitting on April 3, all eyes are on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's decisionon the date of the election.

    Speculation holds that Lee may dismiss the Parliament in the middle of April and hold the general election in early May when Singaporeans get their Progress Package bonus in cash which the government offered in February this year to share its budget surplus with every Singaporean. Enditem