Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa from the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) have stepped down from their leadership roles in the party to focus on being Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMP).
Mr Leong, 60, was the party’s assistant secretary-general while Ms Poa, 49, was its vice-chairman.
After informing the Elections Department (ELD) on 14 July that the party will take up the two NCMP seats offered, the ELD declared Mr Leong and Ms Poa’s election into Singapore’s 14th Parliament on 17 July.
The party’s organising secretary Michael Chua said in a message to PSP members that the decision for Mr Leong and Ms Poa to step down was made during a Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting on July 17. The transition will take effect immediately.
Mr Chua added that CEC member Francis Yuen, who was a candidate at Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency, will be taking over Mr Leong’s post, while the vice-chairman role will remain vacant for now.
“(Mr Yuen) will be planning a restructuring of the party to position (it) for the future and begin the process of inducting younger members into roles of responsibility,” the message read.
In response to media queries, Mr Leong confirmed that the decision was made by the CEC.
“(Ms Poa and I) were asked to lighten our party responsibilities (and) we are totally in agreement with this arrangement,” he said.
Both of them will remain as CEC members and “are involved in various things”, he added, but stressed that “the party views the parliamentary duties as very important”.
“Both on the party side and Parliament side, we have many things to do in order to meet the expectations that the voters have of us,” Mr Leong said. “So we tend to take everything very seriously (and we are) doing a lot of reading and preparation at a moment.”
