The following is the transcript of a statement by the Workers’ Party chairman, Sylvia Lim, and her response to reporters’ questions during a walkabout on Friday morning in Macpherson.
Good morning everyone,
“I think some people might want to know why we did not attend the opposition party meeting yesterday.
“Just to declare, we had earlier assessed that the likely 3-corner fights that the Workers’ Party would be involved in, would involve Fengshan, MacPherson SMC and Marine Parade GRC.
“Now as far as Fengshan is concerned, we would like to thank the DPP for making way for the WP to contest there in a straight fight.
“As for MacPherson and Marine Parade, as I said earlier, we had actually initiated a meeting with the NSP, who had indicated their intention to contest here. In fact we met them before the first opposition meeting that was held on the 3rd of August.
“During the meeting, we actually conveyed a concrete proposal to avoid a 3-corner fight in Marine Parade as well as in MacPherson.
“Subsequently, we noted that at the meeting itself, the first meeting on the 3rd of August, the NSP had indicated disagreement, so we felt an assessment that it would not be productive to attend the subsequent meeting that was held on Thursday. So time is of the essence to us, so we will have to proceed.”
When asked about the possibility of three-cornered fights, Ms Lim said, “Well I think as far as Workers’ Party are concerned, we have done our own assessment of the areas we want to contest and we have told everybody about our considerations, meaning that we still want to contest in the areas that we’ve worked in before and also geographically we’ve also explained a little bit about how the areas are close to each other.”
She said the WP will “still have to proceed based on our plans.”
“We have tried to avoid 3-corner fights,” Ms Lim, who is MP for Aljunied GRC, said. “I think we’ve made a concrete proposal but it doesn’t look that the proposal right now is being accepted.”
Ms Lim confirmed earlier reports that the proposal from the WP was to let the NSP contest Macpherson SMC if the latter withdrew its intention to contest Marine Parade GRC.
“But as I said, time is of the essence and it looks like we have to proceed,” Ms Lim said.
