By Yasmeen Banu
As Singapore’s momentous Jubilee weekend nears a close, there has been much talk about announcements regarding the upcoming elections after the National Day holidays.
Different wards being absorbed has been announced, ministers stepping down for the younger generation to take its places has been witnessed, new faces up for candidacy in the different parties has been seen.
One of those new faces up for candidacy is Roy Ngerng, socio-political blogger for The Heart Truths, also recently involved in the ongoing defamation suit with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for his controversial post regarding the CPF, as well as currently facing legal actions for illegally protesting at Hong Lim Park, alongside CPF activist Han Hui Hui.
Mr Ngerng is reported to have submitted an application to join the Reform Party (RP) and has since been present during the walkabout and door visits conducted by the RP in the recent weeks.
In his blog post on August 4th, Mr Ngerng wrote about his hope for Singapore to be a “…fair, just and equal society where our people are happy, and where we know that this is our home…” His post ended with a poll on whether he should run for the upcoming election. 66% voted “Yes” while the rest of the 32% voted “No”, and the remaining unsure.
Mothership.sg, an online news website, subsequently carried a similar poll, and had 21% of voters with a “Yes” and the rest of the 79% with a “No” to “Should Roy Ngerng run for GE”.
TOC’s poll, so far, seemed to have a 54% vote to a “Yes”, and the rest to a “No”; he should not contest in the elections.
Kenneth Jeyaretnam, Secretary General of the RP, hasn’t made any official comments regarding Mr Ngerng’s candidacy, except that any announcement regarding’s his application would be covered in a press conference the party intends to have after the long weekend.
Joining the walkabout on Monday at Ang Mo Kio was also M. Ravi, human rights lawyer as well as Amos Yee, who was arrested and charged in March for remarks he made in a video on YouTube of the late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
Earlier this year, Ravi had spoken of his intention to contest in Ang Mo Kio under the RP, with blogger Han Hui Hui and two of his legal interns in his team.
It is reported that Ravi is still open about his decision to join the RP and that his presence at the walkabout earlier today was to give his support to the party.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Monday, the Singaporeans First (SingFirst) party has announced that it is pulling out of the contest in Ang Mo Kio GRC to avoid a three-cornered fight with the RP and the People’s Action Party (PAP).
The RP will now go against Ang Mo Kio’s incumbent, PAP, in the coming elections.
Mr Jeyaretnam thanked SingFirst in his Facebook post “for graciously deciding not to contest AMK”, and he spoke about forming an alliance with the opposition parties in their “common objective of taking at least a third of the seats” in the upcoming elections.
