Six members of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) and a reporter from The Straits Times (ST) had their details taken down by a safe distancing officer during their walkabout at Block 358 Bukit Batok West Street 31 on Sunday (21 June).
Gigene Wong is one of the six PSP members, who was one the first slate of candidates introduced by the Party on Thursday (18 June).
According to the ST’s report, the National Environment Agency (NEA) officer claimed that a member of the public complained the group assembled at a coffee shop near the area, adding that the group has exceeded the limitation of five people per group.
The six PSP members and the reporter were alleged of breaching the safe distancing measures and will be fined by the authorities.
Nevertheless, the NEA officers reassured that they can appeal against the fine.
The PSP members, however, denied the allegation. It noted that the group sat separately and it has never assembled with more than five people at once.
Meanwhile, three other members of the media – who was not specified from which news outlet – did not have their details taken by the officers.
TOC in its earlier coverage of PSP’s walkabout at Chua Chu Kang GRC noticed that while the groups of the political party is kept to five by its own social distancing duty officer. The various media personnel covering the walkabout will inevitably increase the groups’ size beyond five — something which is outside of the party’s control.
The Elections Department (ELD) released its campaign guidelines for the next GE on 18 June, stating that actions in accordance with the prevailing safe distancing and safe management guidelines will be taken to political parties or candidates who have been found flouting the safe distancing measures.
“This is no different than for any member of the general public,” the ELD asserted.
