GE2020: DPM Heng Swee Keat to anchor PAP team against WP at East Coast GRC

TWO political parties, the People's Action Party (PAP) and the Workers' Party (WP), nominated their slates of candidates for the keenly watched East Coast GRC on Tuesday.

The PAP nominees are Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Heng Swee Keat, 58; as well as incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) Jessica Tan Soon Neo, 54; Cheryl Chan, 44; Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, 54; and new contester Tan Kiat How, 43.

Mr Tan, formerly the chief executive of the Infocomm Media Development Authority, had been tipped to be fielded in this GRC.

The WP slate is made up of Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim, 54; Foo Seck Guan, 38; Terence Tan, 44; Dylan Ng, 40; and Nicole Seah, 33. Both Mr Ng and Mr Tan had contested in Marine Parade for WP in 2015.

As expected, two of the four incumbent MPs at East Coast, Lim Swee Say and Lee Yi Shyan, have stepped down. Mr Lim, 65, is the former Manpower Minister. Mr Lee Yi Shyan was Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development before he returned to the backbench following a minor stroke in May 2015.

In a Facebook post addressing his move from Tampines GRC to East Coast, Mr Heng said: "After serving for almost a decade, I am very attached to Tampines and the people there. But Tampines has a very good team. The MPs have been working well together, and with the residents."

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After a discussion with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Heng had therefore decided to do his part and move to East Coast. "We will build on the good work by Swee Say, Yi Shyan, and the team. There is so much to learn, and I will work hard to learn it."

East Coast GRC is a new five-member GRC with 120,239 voters, after the return of Fengshan single-member constituency (SMC). Fengshan was carved out in the 2015 General Election (GE).

Both constituencies, Fengshan SMC and East Coast GRC, saw close contests between the ruling PAP and the opposition WP in that election.

East Coast GRC has been one of the WP's relatively strong areas. It had contested there in 2006, 2011 and 2015.

In 2015, the PAP led by Mr Lim Swee Say held East Coast with 60.7 per cent of the vote - the PAP's worst performance for a GRC in that election. In Fengshan, PAP backbencher Cheryl Chan fended off a challenge from WP candidate Dennis Tan with just 57.5 per cent of the vote.

In 2011, the PAP got 54.8 per cent of the vote for East Coast - also its lowest vote share among all the GRCs it won. In 2006, the ruling party won 63.9 per cent of the vote.

Asked about Mr Heng's surprise nomination at East Coast, WP chairman Sylvia Lim said: "Workers' Party is honoured that the PAP has seen it fit to send DPM to help in East Coast GRC. But of course, we're also quietly confident that the slate that we field there - and in fact, the slate that we field in every constituency that we're contesting in - is a strong and diverse slate, who'll be able to represent residents of that area well."

For more of our Singapore GE2020 coverage, go to bt.sg/ge2020