GE2025: West Coast sees repeat battle, with PSP’s Tan Cheng Bock leading team against PAP
Labour unionist Patrick Tay to defend Pioneer seat against PSP first-timer
[SINGAPORE] Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) chairman Dr Tan Cheng Bock is leading the party’s A-team against the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in West Coast-Jurong West GRC, in what is likely to be his last foray in elections.
Candidates from both parties successfully filed their nomination papers at Nan Hua High School on Wednesday (Apr 23).
Contesting alongside Tan, who at 85 is the oldest election candidate, are Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMPs) Leong Mun Wai, 65, and Hazel Poa, 54. First-time candidates Sumarleki Amjah, 53, and Sani Ismail, 49, are also on the party slate for the newly formed GRC.
The incumbents will be led by National Development Minister Desmond Lee, 48, who took over the helm after former transport minister S Iswaran was jailed last October for obtaining gifts as a public servant.
The other candidates on the PAP slate are Senior Parliamentary Secretary Shawn Huang, 42; three-term MP Ang Wei Neng, 58; and new faces Hamid Razak, 39; and Cassandra Lee, 33.
Hamid is an orthopaedic surgeon, while Lee is a lawyer. PSP’s first-timers Sumarleki is the head of packaged food and business development at food and beverage firm Del Monte Pacific, while Sani is the managing director and legal counsel of a condo management firm.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
West Coast-Jurong GRC absorbed estates in the former Jurong West and Taman Jurong and lost its Harbourfront and Sentosa polling districts. The Taman Jurong ward was previously in Jurong GRC, which is viewed as a PAP stronghold.
West Coast GRC, which was the site of the PAP’s narrowest win last elections, was renamed West Coast-Jurong West GRC following the latest change to Singapore’s electoral divisions. In GE2020, the PAP won the constituency with 51.68 per cent of the votes, compared to the PSP’s vote share of 48.32 per cent.
PSP, which polled the highest percentage of votes among losers at that general election, picked Leong and Poa to join Parliament under the NCMP scheme. The redrawn constituency, which has 158,836 voters, will be a closely watched battleground when Singaporeans go to the polls on May 3. It has the second-largest number of electors, behind Ang Mo Kio GRC’s 161,499.
SEE ALSO
PAP to defend Pioneer seat against PSP
At the same nomination centre in Nan Hua High School, labour unionist Patrick Tay, 53, filed his candidacy to defend his seat in Pioneer Single Member Constituency against first-time candidate Stephanie Tan, 37, from the PSP.
Tay, who is the assistant secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress, won the seat five years ago against PSP candidate Lim Cher Hong and independent candidate Cheang Peng Wah.
Tan, a homemaker and mother of two, is a law graduate from the National University of Singapore. The Raffles’ Girls Secondary School and Raffles Junior College alumni had stints as an assistant director in the legal policy division of the Ministry of Law, and legal counsel to the Ministry of Defence.
For more election coverage, visit our GE2025 microsite
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
