After the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) revealed that it was forced to take down 50 of its West Coast GRC campaign posters by the Town Council, the Election Department (ELD) came forward today (3 July) and said that it was done for “public safety reasons”.
In a Facebook post on Thursday night (2 July), the PSP wrote, “Hours of hard work went down the drain. It was puzzling because the PAP posters were left untouched.”
“We appreciate the support and concern of passers-by who said they would post photos and videos of the incident online.”
In an update this morning at 8.14am, PSP noted that the party is in touch with the Elections Department and “will provide a time line of events shortly”
PSP’s secretary-general Dr Tan Cheng Bock also took to his Instagram to also inform about this incident, stating that the party was “very upset and very sad” about it.
He said, “I would like to share with you that many of my PSP posters were taken down and we are very upset and very sad. But I hope the social media friends of mine can help me to spread this message and continue to support me.”
ELD clarifies the reason
Following this incident, ELD said to Mothership that it got in touch with the West Coast Town Council, who owns the lamp posts where the posters were placed.
The Town Council asked for the posters to be removed, fearing the safety of the public as the posters were put up on open space lamp posts where high volume traffic is expected.
“Under the law, political parties and candidates are required to seek consent from premises owners/occupiers for posters and banners to be put up,” ELD said.
It continued, “In this case, ELD checked with West Coast Town Council, which is the premises owner/occupier where the said lamp posts are located. West Coast Town Council asked for the posters to be removed for public safety reasons, as they were affixed to open space lamp posts where high volume of traffic was expected.”
ELD also highlighted that all political parties, including PAP, has removed their posters from the lamp posts.
“Both political parties i.e. PAP and PSP have since removed their posters from these lamp posts.”
