Secretary general of the People’s Power Party (PPP), Goh Meng Seng, has said reports of the National Solidarity Party threatening to contest Aljunied GRC are untrue.
Reporting on the opposition meeting on 5 August, Channel Newsasia (CNA) and TODAY had claimed that “an NSP representative even threatened to send a team to contest in Aljunied GRC — which is held by the WP — if the WP refused to back down” from contesting Marine Parade GRC.
NSP had contested in Marine Parade GRC in the General Election 2011 and received 43.35 per cent of the vote there against a PAP team. However, many of those who contested in the General Election have since left the party.
CNA and TODAY said that according to its sources who attended the closed-door meeting at the NSP’s Jalan Besar headquarters, WP stood firm on its decision to send a team to contest Marine Parade GRC, where the NSP had lost in the 2011 General Election despite garnering 43.4 per cent of the votes.
The news agencies cited “sources” saying that the WP was asked to withdraw its interest in Jalan Besar GRC, in return for the NSP giving up contesting Marine Parade GRC. The WP allegedly said no. There was also no room for negotiation on MacPherson Single Member Constituency (SMC), which the NSP is also eyeing, the sources added.
WP did not turn up for the second round of opposition party meeting held at the NSP Headquarters on Thursday evening, leading to a quick end to the meeting.
Addressing the media outside of NSP’s headquarter, Secretary General of newly formed People’s Power Party, Goh Meng Seng said that the reports about NSP contesting in Aljunied in retaliation to WP’s refusal to back down was untrue.
The NSP also dismissed such reports.
“That is not correct, we didn’t say that.,” NSP president, Sebastian Teo, told the media on Thursday.
What had actually happened, he said, was that during the discussion, someone had for understanding from the WP and asked how the WP would feel if the other opposition parties formed a team and muscled in on Aljunied GRC.
