GE2025: PAP walkover at Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC; first since 2011
Incumbent Tan See Leng replaced by newcomer Goh Pei Ming, former SAF chief of staff
[SINGAPORE] There will be no contest for the People’s Action Party (PAP) team at Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC after a surprise no-show from the Workers’ Party (WP), even though several party supporters were spotted at its nomination centre, including party member Jeraldine Phneah.
PAP also pulled another surprise with the replacement of Manpower Minister Tan See Leng with new candidate Goh Pei Ming, a former Singapore Armed Forces chief of staff.
The five-member team comprising Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, incumbent Members of Parliament Seah Kian Peng and Tin Pei Ling, as well as new candidates Diana Pang and Goh, were elected unopposed at the close of the nomination proceedings on Wednesday (Apr 23) at Kong Hwa School.
This is the first walkover since 2011, when the PAP team led by then-minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew clinched Tanjong Pagar GRC.
WP previously contested Marine Parade GRC in GE2015 and GE2020, but lost both times to PAP.
Tan Chuan-Jin, who resigned over an extramarital affair with then-Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui in 2023, led the PAP team to victory in GE2020 with 57.7 per cent of the votes.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
The vote share, however, was lower than the 64.07 per cent that the party clinched in GE2015, following the retirement of former emeritus senior minister Goh Chok Tong, who had helmed the GRC for decades.
The constituency’s boundaries were significantly redrawn in this election, leading to the formation of Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC.
The newly created Group Representation Constituency also absorbed MacPherson SMC as well as parts of Mountbatten SMC and Potong Pasir SMC.
SEE ALSO
WP’s chief Pritam Singh wrote in a Facebook post at the end of nominations that it was a “very difficult decision” for the party not to contest Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC.
“As a small opposition party, we are constantly faced with difficult choices about where and how best to deploy our limited resources, particularly after electoral boundaries are redrawn,” he said.
“After much reflection and careful consideration, we have determined that in order to continue fighting for the principles and changes we all believe in, and to give our candidates the best chance of electoral success, the party must focus its best efforts this GE on a smaller number of constituencies than we would have hoped to contest.”
When asked to respond to Singh attributing the redrawing of electoral boundaries as part of the reason WP had limited resources to contest in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights, newly minted MP Seah Kian Peng said that these changes are made due to demographic shifts.
“Whatever reasons Workers’ Party have for sending a team here or not, that’s not for us to answer. We have been here. We will continue to be here, and all our main focus is always centred around our residents,” said Seah, who was speaking to reporters after he and his team gave their thank-you speeches.
At the nomination centre at Poi Ching School, where Singh filed his nomination papers to run in Aljunied GRC, he was asked if WP had made a miscalculation by not contesting in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, but is instead facing a four-cornered fight in Tampines GRC.
He said: “It’s not a case as if everyone knew in advance that the PAP would field the slate (in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC).”
“I’m not going to say (that the PAP team) is a weakened slate because there’s no such thing as weak candidates,” he noted. “I’m sure they were watching where we were going, but this is what we’ve decided to do.”
Dr Tan previously announced that he was going to helm Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, but was fielded in Chua Chu Kang GRC in an unexpected turn of events.
People’s Power Party leader Goh Meng Seng, who has thrown in his hat in Tampines GRC, said to reporters at Poi Ching that the party is “very disappointed” in WP for its no-show, and that the absence is “manipulating voters”.
Progress Singapore Party secretary-general Leong Mun Wai acknowledged that there could be “many reasons” for WP’s decision not to contend Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC.
However, he said to reporters at the Jurong West Market after the party’s nomination for West Coast-Jurong West GRC that Singaporeans should be given a chance to “experience the democratic process”.
For more election coverage, visit our GE2025 microsite
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
