MULTI-CORNERED FIGHTS “TO BE THE NORM”
Instead of Marine Parade-Braddell Heights, the WP ended up making a play for Tampines – a Group Representation Constituency it has never contested in.
The surprise move also saw former MP Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap leave the Aljunied GRC team to lead a Tampines slate, also comprising new faces Dr Ong Lue Ping, Mr Michael Thng, Ms Eileen Chong and Mr Jimmy Tan.
Reporters on Thursday asked Mr Singh why WP decided to run in Tampines GRC for the first time, and whether he had concerns over the four-way battle.
“We’ve been walking in Tampines for some time prior to GE2020,” said Mr Singh. “We wanted to field a team there, but at that point, again, we did not have a good enough group of people who were prepared to step forward.”
He said such multi-cornered contests were “going to be the norm” in Singapore’s political scene in future.
“I expected there to be three, four-cornered fights in this election campaign, but they shouldn’t dissuade us from putting forward a credible proposition to Singaporeans for a rational, responsible party in parliament.”
As for the WP’s strategy behind where to field its candidates, in light of the last-minute switches seen on Nomination Day, Mr Singh said there was “nothing untoward” about the party’s planning.
“As I mentioned previously, you could tell that even the PAP didn’t confirm its slate way until the end. So certainly we were quite clear what we wanted to do,” he said.
“The question was, of course, to manage our own candidates in the way that we wanted to … We put forward the best slate of candidates we can for Singapore. We want a more balanced political system.”
