by Andrew Loh
UPDATE – 7 May 1100hrs:
TOC has been informed that the Elections Department has asked the National Solidarity Party (NSP) to make a police report regarding its complaints. The NSP is considering the advice.
The National Solidarity Party (NSP) has lodged a complaint with the Elections Department over the posting of a comment on Tin Pei Ling’s Facebook page on Friday.
The comment was allegedly posted by Ms Tin, who is a People’s Action Party (PAP) candidate for Marine Parade GRC, which the NSP is also contesting.
The PAP team is led by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and includes new face BG Tan Chuan Jin.
The NSP team includes its “star” candidate, Ms Nicole Seah.
All candidates are not allowed to campaign on Cooling-Off Day, which fell on Friday.
According to Channel Newsasia;
Ms Tin said on Thursday May 5, her Facebook page carried a “clarification” on reports that a MacPherson resident had been refused help for her child’s tuition fees.
The resident had asked for a refund.
The MacPherson Zone B Residents’ Committee said the deposit of S$80 cannot be refunded.
But netizens circulated on Friday a screen capture that showed a comment posted on Ms Tin’s Facebook.
The comment said: “OooOoooOooh so that’s what REALLY happened? Wow. I think tears in Parliament is worse than ANYTHING ELSE!”
The comment was however removed within 20 minutes.
When asked by the media on Friday about the incident, Ms Tin said that the comment was posted by one of the administrators of her Facebook page, Ms Denise He.
According to CNA, Ms Tin said:
“She [Ms He] wanted to post the comment in her personal capacity, and she was using her mobile phone. But she didn’t realise that she had inadvertently posted as my profile rather than her own … It was an honest mistake.”
However, socio-political website Temasek Review claimed that in Ms Tin’s declaration of election advertising form, she was the sole administrator of her page. (Temasek Review, see also here.)
Ms He was not declared as an administrator or moderator of the site.
Temasek Review also reported that a netizen has made a report with the Elections Department which said that it is looking into the matter. (See here.)
You can view Tin Pei Ling’s Declaration of Election Advertising forms here: Elections Dept/Tin Pei Ling.
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The NSP also brought to the Elections Department’s attention a posting, also on Ms Tin’s Facebook page, at or around 0021 hrs on Friday – after Cooling-Off Day began – of a clarification by the Macpherson Zone B Resident’s Committee. Ms Tin is the PAP candidate expected to be in charge of the Macpherson ward if elected.
The clarification was about an incident which the NSP’s Ms Seah had recounted in her rally speech on Thursday.
The NSP raised a third incident with the Elections Department in its complaint. The party says it has been informed that copies of the PAP’s booklet – titled “Burning Questions” – were distributed to residents of Block 428, Tampines St 41, on Friday – Cooling Off Day.
“Such distribution appears to be in breach of the PEA [Parliamentary Elections Act], regardless of when the booklet had actually been published,” said the party’s secretary general, Mr Goh Meng Seng, in its press release.
Ms Seah will be paying a visit to the Elections Department on Saturday morning at 10am to inquire about the status of the complaints.
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The comment on Ms Tin’s Facebook page which Ms Tin claimed was posted by Ms Denise He.
The clarification by the MacPherson Zone B RC Committee posted on Ms Tin’s Facebook page. The time of the posting made says “0021 hrs” on 6 May, which was Cooling-Off Day.
