GE2025: PAP and WP trade arguments, SDP holds lunchtime rally on Day 7 of campaigning
[SINGAPORE] The seventh day of campaigning featured this election’s second lunchtime rally, with another five rallies to come this Tuesday (Apr 29) evening.
Meanwhile, at walkabouts across the north-east, the People’s Action Party (PAP) and Workers’ Party (WP) traded arguments on topics raised in Monday’s rallies.
After its lunchtime rally today, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) is holding another rally tonight. So too are the PAP, People’s Power Party (PPP), Red Dot United (RDU) and WP.
Scroll down for the rally locations and timings, along with livestream links to watch them online.
PAP: SM Lee, PM Wong rebut WP rally claims
On a walkabout in Aljunied GRC this morning, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it was “ridiculous” to claim that the government would not be weakened if the PAP loses ministers.
He was responding to WP candidates who said at Monday’s night rally that the PAP can afford to lose Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, who leads the ruling party’s team against the WP in Punggol GRC.
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Noting how the PAP has stressed the importance of DPM Gan, WP chief Pritam Singh said Singapore would be “in trouble” if no one else in Cabinet could negotiate with the US on tariffs.
Singh also speculated that DPM Gan had intended to retire – as he was not elected into the PAP’s latest Central Executive Committee (CEC) – and would likely serve just one more term if re-elected.
To that, SM Lee said that Singh cannot admit how valuable DPM Gan is, because the WP is trying to make in-roads in Punggol GRC.
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At a separate walkabout in Punggol, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said: “Not being a member of the CEC is an irrelevant point, because Gan Kim Yong is a key member of my team. He’s my deputy.”
DPM Gan had decided not to run in the CEC elections in order to allow for renewal of the party, he added.
PAP: DPM Gan addresses controversial Income-Allianz deal
At the same walkabout with PM Wong, DPM Gan clarified his role in the Income-Allianz deal, which has emerged as a hot topic this GE.
Former NTUC Income chief Tan Suee Chieh and various opposition candidates have raised questions about DPM Gan’s role in approving the deal as chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
On Tuesday, DPM Gan said that when MAS saw the proposal in July, the focus was the main transfer of ownership in Income. Approval for Allianz’s plan to extract capital from Income – as part of plans to return S$1.85 billion to shareholders – would have “come much later”.
As for the apparent change in the government’s stance, he said: “When the deal was first surfaced, the government (and) various agencies took a positive approach. We understood that Income needed to do this to strengthen its capital base to be able to move forward.”
But as more information came to light, there was concern “about how the new entity would be able to fulfil the social mission”. After that, MAS and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth discussed and presented the issue to the Cabinet.
WP: Pritam Singh welcomes “more responsibility” for opposition
At a morning doorstop in Hougang, WP chief Singh replied to PM Wong’s comment – made in the PAP’s Monday lunchtime rally – that the opposition wants more seats in Parliament, but not more responsibility.
“I welcome him to give us more responsibility,” said Singh. “He can have us on committees.”
At Monday’s rally, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah also said that opposition parties often call on voters to bring alternative voices into Parliament, but rarely acknowledge that such voices are guaranteed through 12 Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) seats.
To this, Singh said that NCMPs have no constituents from whom to solicit feedback. He said that the PAP does not want elected opposition MPs because “only an elected opposition can take any pressure and push the government”.
SDP: Party leaders call for healthy competition at lunchtime rally
A day after the PAP held this election’s first lunchtime rally in the Central Business District, the SDP did the same. The SDP is the only opposition party to have held a lunchtime rally since 1997, when the WP last did so.
SDP secretary-general Chee Soon Juan and chairman Paul Tambyah spoke at the rally at UOB Plaza promenade, along with six other candidates:
- Jufri Salim
- Alfred Tan
- Ariffin Sha
- Damanhuri Abas
- James Gomez
- Bryan Lim
Dr Tambyah said that Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, who is also Minister-in-charge of the Public Service, should reassure Singaporeans that they can “vote freely without fear of retribution”.
He cited an article in The Straits Times published on Monday, in which a 21-year-old law student who attended an SDP rally the day before declined to reveal her name when advised against it by her father, an employee in a government-linked corporation.
Dr Chee cited several incidents that occurred under the government’s watch, calling them “hard, unmistakable evidence of the quality of PAP deteriorating over the years”.
These included SM Lee’s handling of former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin’s affair, the use of TraceTogether data for police investigations, the Ridout Road controversy, and the six-day MRT breakdown on the East West Line.
“Blind faith lulls society into thinking that things are fine when they are clearly not. And worse, that there is no alternative to the PAP,” he said.
In case you missed it, here’s our livestream of the rally to watch at your leisure.
And here are the locations and times of today’s rallies. You can catch some of them through our livestreams, which are listed below.
Today’s rally sites:
Today’s rally livestreams:
People’s Action Party (Nee Soon GRC)
Singapore Democratic Party (Bukit Panjang SMC)
Singapore Democratic Party (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC)
Workers’ Party (East Coast GRC)
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