The quintet, if fielded on Nomination Day on Apr 23, will be up against a People’s Action Party (PAP) slate that will be led by Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and former Yuhua SMC MP Grace Fu.
Joining her are two new faces: charity director David Hoe and former Hougang representative Lee Hong Chuang. Also on the team are current Jurong GRC MP and Minister of State for Health and Digital Development and Information Rahayu Mazam, as well as Bukit Batok SMC MP and Minister of State for Transport and Law Murali Pillai.
When asked by the media about his thoughts on the new faces in the PAP slate, RDU secretary-general Ravi Philemon said that they have “yet to prove themselves”.
He took aim at Mr Lee, who had lost the previous election at Hougang SMC to Workers’ Party candidate Dennis Tan with 38.79 per cent of the vote.
Mr Philemon said that Mr Lee’s move to the GRC is a “reward” for previously contesting in an opposition stronghold.
“Here you have a candidate who didn’t do so well in one constituency, and the incumbents are thinking that probably this is a constituency where he will be well accepted,” he said.
“I think the voters here are very mature, and that’s the decision that they will have to make.”
Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC was formed from a merger of Bukit Batok SMC and parts of Jurong GRC, Yuhua SMC and Hong Kah North SMC following the latest electoral boundaries review. The GRC has 142,510 voters.
Jurong GRC was PAP’s best-performing GRC in the last two elections, securing 79.29 per cent of votes in 2015 and 74.61 per cent in 2020. It was previously anchored by former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who left politics to contest the presidency in 2023.
Singapore will head to the polls on May 3.
