GE2025: Grace Fu to lead PAP team to contest new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC
The five-member slate includes former Hougang candidate Lee Hong Chuang and former teacher David Hoe
[SINGAPORE] Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu will lead the five-member People’s Action Party (PAP) team that will contest the newly created Jurong East-Bukit Batok Group Representation Constituency (GRC).
She will be joined by Ministers of State Murali Pillai and Rahayu Mahzam, the party’s former two-time Hougang candidate Lee Hong Chuang, and election debutant David Hoe.
Fu, the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the Yuhua Single Member Constituency (SMC) since 2006, said at a press conference on Monday (Apr 14) that there are “many big pairs of shoes to fill” for her team.
In the last two general elections, the previous Jurong GRC – helmed by now-President Tharman Shanmugaratnam – was the standout performer for the PAP. In 2015, it won 79.3 per cent of the vote; and in 2020, it secured 74.6 per cent.
“President Tharman is highly popular and very well-respected. It will be very difficult for any one of us to replicate him, and we don’t intend to,” said Fu.
“We are ourselves, and we have a team with diversity, youth with energy and many backgrounds, experience, energy and empathy. We go in asking for a contest, and asking for an affirmation and a mandate from the voters sincerely and respectfully.” Fu also took the opportunity to thank two incumbent MPs – Senior Minister of State Amy Khor and backbencher Tan Wu Meng – for their service in the Hong Kah North and Clementi wards, respectively. Both were not present at the session.
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At a separate briefing later on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong confirmed that Dr Khor – who has served in Hong Kah North for the last 24 years over five terms of government – would not be contesting the GE.
As for Tan, he posted on Facebook to encourage voters in Clementi to support Hoe just as they had supported him in the last 10 years. As for his next moves, Tan would only say: “In life, I go where I am needed most. And I hope to be able to share more with all of you very soon.”
Diverse team
Murali started volunteering in Bukit Batok 25 years ago and he entered Parliament after winning the Bukit Batok by-election in 2016. Last year, he became minister of state for law and transport.
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Rahayu has served as the MP in Bukit Batok East since 2015. She became a political office-holder in 2021 and is currently minister of state for health and digital development and information.
Lee is perhaps most well-known to voters as the candidate whom the PAP fielded in Hougang for the 2015 and 2020 elections, losing both times to the Workers’ Party.
He has been an activist at Teck Ghee branch since 2004 and served as a branch chairman for Hougang from 2014 to 2023, and the Young PAP Exco from 2008 to 2010.
Hoe, the lone new face in the line-up, is a 37-year-old former junior college teacher who is now the director of philanthropy at The Majurity Trust.
Also introduced at the same press conference on Monday was Xie Yao Quan, who will be the PAP’s candidate for the new Jurong Central SMC.
Xie, who entered politics at the 2020 polls, is the chief executive officer of QuantEdge Foundation, which focuses on improving social mobility in Singapore.
Poised for a contest
Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC was formed after the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee’s latest report was released in March.
The five-member constituency will absorb all of Bukit Batok SMC and parts of Yuhua SMC and Hong Kah North SMC. In all, there is a total of 142,510 voters.
The PAP team led by Fu could face opponents from Red Dot United (RDU) this year.
The opposition party is likely to field a team that includes Liyana Dhamirah, a manager of a non-profit organisation; Ben Puah, an artist and community art organiser; Harish Mohanadas, a principal software engineer; Pang Heng Chuan, an international tech startup director; and former educator Emily Woo.
Liyana has some previous election experience. At the last polls in 2020, she contested under the RDU banner in Jurong GRC, with her team earning 25.4 per cent of the vote against the PAP team led by then-senior minister Tharman.
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