On Tues (16 Jun), Must Share News published an article saying that Reform Party (RP) has announced 7 candidates for the upcoming GE and that RP may clash with PSP for West Coast GRC (‘Reform Party Announces 7 GE Candidates, May Clash With PSP For West Coast GRC‘).
In the write-up, the article originally mentioned that 3 of the announced RP candidates had contested at the West Coast GRC in 2015.
The article immediately elicit a response from RP the next day (17 Jun).
Kenneth Jeyaretnam, the Secretary-General of RP, wrote on the party’s Facebook page exclaiming, “Must Share Fake News!”
He said the article contained two factual errors.
“Firstly it says that three of our prospective candidates had previously stood in West Coast GRC in the 2015 election. This is false. The actual number was four. In addition to myself, Andy Zhu and Noraini Yunus, Darren Soh also stood as part of our West Coast team,” Mr Jeyaretnam pointed out.
He added that Andy Zhu and himself also stood at West Coast GRC in the 2011 GE.
Mr Jeyaretnam went on to say that there have been 3 cornered fights in a GRC before, “It is not true that there have never been any 3 cornered fights for a GRC before. There was one in 1992 in Marine Parade which was actually a 4 cornered fight between PAP, SDP, NSP and SJP.”
He added that J B Jeyaretnam who is his father, had also wanted to contest in Marine Parade GRC. His father was the Secretary-General of WP at the time.
“However, one of his candidates let him down and didn’t turn up on Nomination Day resulting in his WP team not completing the nomination process,” Mr Jeyaretnam explained.
In any case, he said he had written to editor of Must Share News “demanding a correction”.
And indeed, Must Share News complied to Mr Jeyaretnam’s demand and corrected their article the very same day on 17th.
In 2015 GE, RP contested in 2 GRCs and 1 SMC. They were West Coast GRC, Ang Mo Kio GRC and Radin Mas SMC. Overall, RP achieved 20.6% of valid votes in constituencies contested by the party:
