GE2025: PAP faces SDP, NSP in three-corner fight for Sembawang GRC
SDP’s Chee Soon Juan to contest newly carved out Sembawang West SMC against incumbent MP Poh Li San; in Nee Soon GRC, it’s PAP versus Red Dot United
[SINGAPORE] Sembawang GRC will see a three-way fight at the polls, as the incumbent People’s Action Party (PAP) faces off against teams from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and National Solidarity Party (NSP).
Candidates from all three parties filed their papers at nomination centre Chongfu School on Wednesday (Apr 23).
PAP’s slate is led by Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung. He will be joined by two new faces – Gabriel Lam, chief operating officer of moving company Shalom International Movers, as well as Ng Shi Xuan, director of battery company Powermark Battery & Hardware.
Rounding out the quintet are Vikram Nair and Mariam Jaafar, who were part of PAP’s team that won Sembawang GRC in 2020.
SDP’s team contesting the Group Representation Constituency consists of hospital assistant director Bryan Lim; music publisher Surayah Akbar; research institute director James Gomez; entrepreneur Alfred Tan; and educational consultant Damanhuri Abas.
The party contested in the GRC in 2006 and 2011. SDP lost to PAP with 23.3 per cent of the votes in 2006, and with 36.1 per cent of the votes in 2011.
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The GRC will also see a team from NSP. The party contested Sembawang GRC in the last two general elections, losing to PAP with a vote share of 27.7 per cent in 2015 and 32.7 per cent in 2020.
The team will be led by party secretary-general Spencer Ng. The other members are Raiyian Chia, a private-hire driver and swim coach; Verina Ong, a Republic Polytechnic lecturer; Lee Wei, a former senior lecturer at Republic Polytechnic; and Yadzeth Hairis, who was in NSP’s 2015 and 2020 Sembawang teams.
Sembawang West SMC
Sembawang West SMC, which was carved out from Sembawang GRC in this year’s election, will be a head-to-head fight between SDP’s party chief Chee Soon Juan and PAP’s Poh Li San.
SEE ALSO
Dr Chee contested in Bukit Batok SMC at the 2016 by-election and GE2020. The Single-Member Constituency was absorbed into the new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC with the release of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee report on Mar 11.
He then made the decision to move to Sembawang West SMC, citing a “northern strategy” for SDP.
Poh, who is contesting for a second term, was part of PAP’s winning Sembawang GRC team in 2020. The team garnered 67.3 per cent of the votes in the GRC against NSP.
NSP previously expressed an intent to contest in Sembawang West SMC. Prior to Nomination Day, NSP’s Ng said the party decided not to field a candidate there.
Nee Soon GRC
Separately, Nee Soon GRC will be a battleground between PAP and Red Dot United (RDU).
PAP’s team includes a nearly refreshed slate of new faces, with the only incumbent being its current anchor member, Minister for Law and Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam.
The new candidates include Syed Harun Alhabsyi, a consultant psychiatrist who was a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP). In February, he resigned from his NMP role, before resurfacing at a PAP walkabout in Nee Soon GRC.
Other candidates include former civil servant Goh Hanyan; Temasek Foundation communications director Lee Hui Ying; and Jackson Lam, former PAP branch chair in Hougang.
The largely changed team comes as three of the MPs from the previous term – Louis Ng, Carrie Tan and Derrick Goh – announced they will be stepping down from politics. The fourth, Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, was elected at Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC after a surprise no-show from the Workers’ Party.
In a doorstop interview after confirming their candidacy, Shanmugam said the Nee Soon GRC team’s campaign will focus on residents’ concerns, from national issues such as the impacts of the global economic situation to municipal issues and the cost of living.
These are matters the team has tackled “all these years”, he added.
“It’s not as if we are campaigning now... You’ve got to be working the ground, day in, day out, over the years. Then, when you turn up, you have some credibility,” he said.
He also noted that the new faces have been walking the ground and “know what it is in store”. “As I said yesterday, every MP was a new face once.”
The MPs from the previous term will also help with the campaign, he added.
Meanwhile, RDU’s slate will be led by its party secretary-general Ravi Philemon. Other candidates are chemist and party chair David Foo; Sharon Lin, a senior consultant in the IT services sector; tech startup business director Pang Heng Chuan; and private teacher Syed Alwi Ahmad.
Philemon noted that issues faced by residents are “plain for the people to see”, citing the higher cost of living and fewer job opportunities.
“In the midst of these issues, inequality is deepening,” he said, adding that the ruling party could be more circumspect in making sure the cost of living does not continue to increase.
He reiterated RDU’s call for the goods and services tax to be reverted to 7 per cent, which would “immediately put a lot of money into the pockets of the people”.
In the previous general election, Nee Soon GRC saw Shanmugam’s PAP slate beat a team from the Progress Singapore Party.
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