By The National Solidarity Party (NSP) held a walkabout in Tampines GRC on the morning of National Day, 9 August.
Reception was warm towards the party at the food centre, as the NSP is a familiar sight among residents through regular walkabouts by the party in Tampines for many years.
The president of NSP, Sebastian Teo, is one of the faces whom residents recognized and could relate to without difficulty.
“Tampines is one of those that we will definitely be very interested to put our best in. Tampines, because the NSP has been here since 1988. Residents recognize us, and we have been quite happy with the support we have been getting here,” said Hazel Poa, party secretary general.
On the possible three-corner fight with Workers’ Party at Marine Parade GRC and Macpherson SMC, Ms Poa said she can’t comment except to say that the NSP has sent emails to WP on Friday.
Ms Poa also said that the NSP will be announcing its election plans today (Monday) if the WP does not reply to the NSP’s email.
The WP failed to turn up for the second round of horse-trading between the opposition parties last Thursday at the NSP headquarters, but has conducted walkabouts in both Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson SMC the past week..
Residents were told that an “A-team” from NSP will be sent to contest Tampines GRC.
Ms Poa, however, was hesitant to share details of the candidates that NSP would be fielding in the GRC. She said that the party will have to wait for the writ of election to be issued before it starts announcing its candidates. However, she said that NSP has its logistics and candidates ready for election should it be called.
Ms Poa also noted that there has been some consideration to focus their campaigning efforts on Tampines GRC.
Ms Poa said, “There are also some who reflected to us that they feel it’s a real pity we did not concentrate our resources here the last GE. They were quite disappointed.”
Ms Poa explained:
“At the previous GE (General Election), our strategy was different. At that time, the objective was to build name recognition for NSP, so we kind of went out in terms of numbers, so that on a nationwide basis, this name recognition is there. But for this GE, our objective is different. We want to win one constituency.”
Also present at the walkabout was Lin Tean, a possible candidate for the NSP.
He was introduced to residents as a senior law consultant and has been volunteering with the party for four years.
Mr Lin is believed to have joined the party recently as a member.