Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) residents are bound to witness a three-cornered fight after two opposition parties on Friday (19 June) announced their plans to contest in the ward.
People’s Voice (PV) chief Lim Tean in a Facebook post yesterday said that his party “has been in active talks with our friends from the other Opposition parties” regarding the matter.
Disclosing that PV will be fielding “a very strong team” comprising five candidates in Jurong GRC in the next General Election (GE), Mr Lim said that Jurong GRC “is the perfect constituency where our message of Putting People First and Making Singapore Our Home Again will resonate strongly with the residents”.
Mr Lim founded PV in October 2018. His previous involvement in politics entailed leading the National Solidarity Party (NSP) under the secretary-general post. He contested in the previous GE in 2015 as a candidate for the Tampines GRC under the NSP banner.
Mr Lim is also a lawyer by profession. Currently, he represents veteran blogger Leong Sze Hian in a high-profile defamation suit brought by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The same day, Singapore’s newest political party Red Dot United (RDU) announced its intention to contest Jurong GRC.
However, RDU said that it will not “contest any constituency should there be a 3-corner fight”, out of respect towards the other opposition parties.
RDU stated that it has reached out to the other opposition parties, adding that none of them has indicated that they will be contesting Jurong GRC.
“If this constituency remains unchallenged, RDU will represent the opposition to the best of our ability,” the Party added.
RDU, however, told The Straits Times that it will make way for PV in Jurong GRC should the latter party turn up on Nomination Day. In the meantime, RDU said it will carry on with its plans for the constituency.
“We will continue to make plans to contest there as many things can happen before Nomination Day comes around.
“RDU chief Ravi Philemon spoke to Lim Tean last week and said we were considering Jurong and Lim Tean mentioned PV was focusing on another constituency, among a few he was considering. Jurong was not among them,” RDU told ST on Friday.
Introducing its mission statement — “Politics with Principles, Vision with Values” — RDU expressed its belief that “politics must be founded on principles that are unchanging” such as “fairness, accountability, integrity, transparency, happiness, hope and heart (compassion and empathy)”.
“Just as a compass does, RDU will strive to consistently point towards the principles and values which must be present in the decision-making process of the government and country,” said the Party, commenting on its logo.
The Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) Registry of Societies approved on Monday (15 June) RDU’s application as a political party.
The Party submitted its application on 26 May and received approval just after three weeks.
RDU’s key members include former Progress Singapore Party (PSP) members Ravi Philemon and Michelle Lee Juen at the helm. Currently, the new party has 12 members in total.
Mr Philemon left PSP last month, whereas Ms Lee — formerly PSP’s vice-chairman — resigned earlier in March.
Generally, it takes an average of two months for the registry to process applications to register a new political party. PSP, for example, submitted its application on 16 January last year and only received approval three months later on 28 March.
In the 2015 GE, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) recorded a landslide victory of over 79 per cent of votes in Jurong GRC against the Singaporeans First party. The PAP team of candidates was spearheaded by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
