SINGAPORE: The opposition Workers’ Party (WP) will contest fewer than a third of 97 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Singapore’s General Election on May 3.
This was made known by party chief Pritam Singh on Thursday (Apr 17) at a press conference where the WP unveiled its manifesto and four new candidates.
But he stopped short of specifying the total number of candidates the party was fielding, or which constituencies it was contesting, only saying that these would be announced in good time.
WP had previously said, in 2019, that its medium-term objective was to contest and win one-third of the seats in parliament.
Responding to a question on whether that remains the party’s goal in this year’s election, Mr Singh said: “The medium-term objective is one-third opposition MPs in parliament and … I’m saying that we will not be able to meet that one-third number of candidates to fill one-third of parliament (with) opposition MPs.”
“The bigger objective is to make sure that we assemble good teams and individuals who can actually work in the interests of Singapore and Singaporeans,” he added.
At the last General Election in 2020, the WP fielded a total of 21 candidates, down from 28 in GE2015.
The party contested GE2020 in Hougang and Punggol West SMCs as well as Sengkang, Aljunied, East Coast and Marine Parade GRCs – all constituencies located in the east or northeast of Singapore.
It increased its margin of support in Hougang SMC and Aljunied GRC, and gained four new seats in parliament with victory in Sengkang GRC.
WP could contest in the newly created Punggol GRC as well as constituencies in longtime stomping ground Tampines, as part of a continued eastern and northeastern push, party insiders and analysts told CNA previously.
This could bring their total number of candidates at this year’s polls to 30 – still below the 32 figure to make up a third of parliament seats.
