The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) revealed on Wednesday morning (24 June) that the police has rejected its application to carry out a three-day event called Walk The Talk.
The event involves party’s chief Dr Chee Soon Juan going around the city-state on foot to raise funds for SDP.
“We have received the reply from the police rejecting our application for Walk The Talk, a 3-day event where Dr Chee Soon Juan, would go on foot around Singapore to raise funds for SDP,” it stated in a Facebook post.
SDP had carried out the same event in 2015 where Dr Chee went on a 140km-walk around the island to raise funds for the party and public awareness of it.
The party said in today’s post that although only Dr Chee will be walking around the island to conduct this event, the police said that it may still gather a crowd, increasing the risk of COVID-19 infection.
“The police said no because ‘Cause-based activities, even if carried out by one individual, might cause crowds to gather, and put the public and participants at higher risk of COVID-19 infection’,” SDP said.
As such, the party stressed that if the police is afraid that the event may bring people together, then the People’s Action Party (PAP) should have not called for a GE during a pandemic.
“If the police are afraid of activities that might cause crowds to gather during the Covid pandemic, why did the PAP call for elections now?
“Despite the rejection, we remain undaunted and appeal to you to help our campaign by donating or buying our merchandise. Thank you,” SDP concluded.
On Tuesday, President Halimah Yacob dissolved the Parliament and issued the Writ of Election on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Singapore’s 14th GE will be held on 10 July and the Nomination Day is set on 30 June.
