Singapore's Ruling Party Loses by-Election Voters dealt Singapore's ruling People's Action Party its third electoral setback in a year, allowing the opposition to hold onto a Parliament seat in a by-election Saturday. Workers' Party candidate Png Eng Huat, a 50-year-old businessman, won 62 percent of about 21,700 votes cast in Hougang district while PAP candidate Desmond Choo received 38 percent, election officials said. The PAP still controls 81 of 87 parliamentary seats, but it has struggled to staunch growing discontent over a surge in foreign workers, soaring housing and transport costs and stagnant salaries for low-wage earners. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and other PAP leaders campaigned frequently for Choo during the nine-day campaign. The government called the by-election after the Workers' Party earlier this year expelled lawmaker Yaw Shin Leong when he refused to explain allegations of personal indiscretions. Choo, a 34-year-old union official, suffered his second defeat in Hougang in a year. He lost with 35 percent of the vote to Yaw last May during a general election in which the PAP won 60 percent of the total vote, its lowest level of popularity since independence in 1965. In August, the PAP's candidate for president - a largely ceremonial position - won by less than 1 percentage point with 35 percent of the vote. The Workers' Party's six parliament seats are the most the opposition has held since Singapore split from a short-lived federation with Malaysia.