While the COVID-19 pandemic has posed restrictions on many political parties in carrying out ground campaigning efforts, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) member Brad Bowyer on Saturday (20 June) distributed masks and flyers to members of the public.
“It is a rainy morning but the task of distributing flyers and masks must be done. The more we can reach out through social media the safer everyone is but for now we must join the battle we are forced to fight,” he said in a Facebook post today.
Mr Bowyer is one of six of candidates announced by PSP for the next GE on Thursday (18 June).
Following the announcement, Mr Bowyer said that he is “proud and honoured” to be a candidate representing PSP.
Mr Bowyer recently criticised the ruling party’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore.
Responding to a question on what he thinks of PAP’s performance on isolation, containment, and the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Bowyer said in an online Meet-The-People session by PSP that there is “massive room for improvement”.
Mr Bowyer supported his opinion by saying that a country should get its people out of danger when there is an emergency, citing New Zealand’s urgent execution of lockdown when they had less than 100 cases.
“When you’re dealing with a pandemic, they call it the ‘hammer and dance strategy’. Very quickly, you go into some kind of lockdown and then you dance your way back out of it. And then you work out what is the issue you’re dealing with, how do you keep people safe, how do you move on with your real lives,” he said.
Mr Bowyer also highlighted that none of the ministers on Singapore’s task force for COVID-19 is a health expert –- most notably the Health Minister himself whose previous experience was in electrical engineering, not healthcare or medicine.
While Singapore has until April next year to hold the next General Election, observers predict that it will be held as early as next month.
Further fanning speculation of an impending GE, the Election Department recently released its preliminary campaigning guidelines, which it said is in line with the Ministry of Health’s guidelines for Phase Two, post-circuit breaker.
The announcement of these guidelines, however, is unrelated to the timing of the GE, said ELD. The timing of the next GE will be decided by the Prime Minister, it added.
