‘Difficult decision to make’: Pritam on WP’s caution over revealing GE2025 deployments (2025)

SINGAPORE - The decision by the WP to play its electoral cards close to its chest for the upcoming general election was a difficult one to make, said party chief Pritam Singh.

Mr Singh said the WP is a “price-taker, not price-setter”, especially when it comes to the redrawing of electoral boundaries and deciding where to field its candidates.

The opposition party has to be mindful about the signals it sends and how it employs its electoral strategy, Mr Singh told reporters on April 20 during a press conference to introduce its final batch of new candidates.

“I request voters to understand how we have to determine what are the best prospects of success for the Workers’ Party. It is a difficult decision to make,” said Mr Singh, the Leader of the Opposition.

He added: “We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Mr Singh, who did not reveal where the WP will contest in the coming polls, was asked if he thought that the party’s coyness about its plans would affect voters’ ability to learn more about its candidates.

He pointed out that his conversations with Singaporeans about this have been telling.

“They say, Mr Singh, we know the party. We know what the party stands for... All we ask is just give us a committed individual who will serve the constituency well, but more importantly, serve us in Parliament,” he said.

“Certainly, the PAP are keeping their cards close to their chest, and so are we,” he said, when reporters pointed out that neither party has announced its slate for closely watched constituencies such as East Coast GRC and Punggol GRC.

Of the 14 new faces that the WP has introduced so far, the opposition party has said only that it will field technology start-up director Kenneth Tiong in Aljunied GRC, and town council senior property manager Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik in Sengkang GRC.

Asked whether the WP would be fielding its deputy organising secretaries Kenneth Foo and Ang Boon Yaw, who have been spotted walking the ground in East Coast GRC over the Good Friday weekend, Mr Singh said he could not shed any more light on this.

He gave the same response when asked if Ms Paris V. Parameswari, a former US Navy security administrator and new WP candidate, would be fielded in the newly created Punggol GRC, which requires at least one candidate to be from the Indian or other minority communities.

The WP’s other Indian candidates – Mr Singh and senior counselHarpreet Singh Nehal – are expected to stand in constituencies other than Punggol.

While the WP will not be holding any more candidate introductions, Mr Singh could not guarantee that the party will not field any more new faces come Nomination Day on April 23, pointing to the need to prepare spare candidates.

Mr Singh also said he “agreed wholeheartedly” with Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s comments on April 19 that Singaporeans will have to judge candidates not just as individuals, but the party they stand for.

Town council experience

On whether the WP will base its 2025 election campaign on its performance in Parliament instead of its ability to handle municipal issues, WP chair Sylvia Lim said the party has built up its town council management experience, having run Aljunied GRC for more than a decade.

“So, what I can say to residents is that they shouldn’t have concerns about us taking over,” she added, noting that the WP’s Aljunied-Hougang Town Council and Sengkang Town Council have been rated as well as PAP-run town councils.

“If we are fortunate enough to win new areas, we will get working from day one, and we have experience to share with our newly elected MPs,” she said.

However, in areas where the WP is not the incumbent, expecting candidates there to come up with a five-year plan for the estate would be “jumping the gun”, Ms Lim said.

“We do find that our value proposition lies very much in what we can bring to Parliament,” she added.

Ms Lim said voters understand the need for parliamentary check on the Government, and the WP believes it can bring something to the table that PAP MPs cannot. “That is, the topics we bring up, the questions that we have, or even the way we vote. We do it independently,” she added.

During the April 20 briefing, Mr Singh was asked for his take on opposition unity. In response, he said he has heard this point being made less often now, adding that the WP is focused on building up itself “internally”.

“Even on something as simple as three-cornered fights, suddenly a group of parties can decide to break away. And that is just on a point which has got nothing to do with policy, nothing to do with bread-and-butter issues, nothing to do with fundamental concerns of Singaporeans,” Mr Singh noted.

He added: “We have our plans, and we work on the basis of our plans, and we know how difficult it is to stand for the opposition. Other opposition parties are at different stages of their own evolution, and we wish them well.”

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