Singapore GE2025: Workers Party slate of new candidates similar in terms of qualifications, diverse in experiences

The Star

23-04-2025

SINGAPORE: When Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh unveiled his party's new faces for the upcoming election, he had described them as 'a broad range of individuals from different walks of life, different age groups, different backgrounds and different experiences'.
Looking at the WP's slate of 14 new candidates, some will certainly take the same view.
The 14 include Dr Ong Lue Ping, 48, a senior clinical psychologist from the Institute of Mental Health; start-up founder Michael Thng, 37; media professional Jackson Au, 35; former diplomat Eileen Chong, 33; and Paris V. Parameswari, 51, a former US Navy security administrator.
Even among the legally trained candidates, career trajectories have diverged – there is Harpreet Singh Nehal, 59, senior counsel and managing partner of his own law firm.
Andre Low, 34, is a disputes lawyer turned staff product manager at a global fintech company, while Sufyan Mikhail Putra Mohd Kamil, 33, is a former coast guard officer turned lawyer.
Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar, 43, a former in-house counsel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is now a legal counsel in a multinational corporation.
The slate is also diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity. There are four women and 10 men, with three Malay candidates and two Indian candidates.
Said Pritam Singh on April 20 when introducing the last batch of new faces: 'Insofar as what the Workers' Party has put forward to Singaporeans for this election... everybody brings something to the table.'
Other commentators have observed that the candidates also seem to have been picked based on their qualifications and credentials.
IPS Social Lab adjunct principal research fellow and academic adviser Tan Ern Ser said the WP's new faces were mainly professionals, and with academic degrees.
Indeed, among the 14 new faces, all but one are graduates with at least a bachelor's degree.
Seven also have a master's degree, including Thng who has a master's in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, while Dr Ong has a PhD.
On the calibre of candidates, Harpreet Singh had said at his introduction on April 19: 'So, if you elect me and my team, wherever we go... you will have me practically in your face all the time. And the advantage is, you have the calibre of people in my team without having to pay us ministerial salaries.'
Inevitably, comparisons have arisen between the new faces of the WP and the People's Action Party.
While some commentators have said that the WP's slate is not as outstanding, others have made the case that the opposition party's candidates were just as 'elite' as the PAP's.
To Dr Tan, this is a case of 'same, same, but different', as people use both objective and subjective criteria to evaluate candidates.
'Well-qualified candidates are expected of the ruling party, but well-qualified candidates in a reputable opposition party are seen as exceptional,' he said.
Dr Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore, said political parties that want to do well will have to field candidates who are 'near the centre ground'.
To this end, there would be broad similarities between the candidates of the PAP and the WP.
Even then, they may differ in terms of how they view bread-and-butter issues and other policies, he added.
In putting forth new faces with 'impressive profiles' this time around, the WP is continuing with the trend that had allowed it to win Sengkang GRC in 2020, he said.
Since the WP won Aljunied GRC in 2011 – the first victory in a group representation constituency for any opposition party – it has had greater success in attracting new candidates.
In the 2015 General Election, the party fielded more professionals in its slate, including lawyers like He Ting Ru, academic Daniel Goh and Leon Perera, a former administrative officer in the civil service.
Associate Professor Goh and Perera served as Non-Constituency MPs in the 13th term of Parliament. In the 2020 election, He and Perera became elected MPs.
The WP has also managed to refresh around half its slate in each election since 2015.
While the party has not announced which constituencies it will contest this time around, its activities on the ground suggest that it is likely to field candidates for 31 seats – in Aljunied GRC, Sengkang GRC, East Coast GRC, Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, Punggol GRC and Tampines GRC, as well as the single seats of Hougang, Jalan Kayu and Tampines Changkat.
Given that Pritam Singh had also suggested at one of the press conferences that there could be more new faces revealed on Nomination Day, at least half of the party's slate could be made up of new faces.
This was also the case in 2015, when 16 out of 28 candidates were new faces. In 2020, nine out of 21 were new faces.
Dr Tan put this down to the WP's growing credibility.
'It is now seen as more attractive – electable, focused, and measured in its approach to politics – and perhaps, more importantly, has a positive electoral trajectory,' he said.
Dr Mustafa said having MPs in Parliament has helped the WP become more effective in recruiting candidates, as the public can see how the party has performed in the House.
Based on past elections, some of the more prominent new candidates fielded have also ended up being elected or co-opted into the party's central executive committee after the election, regardless of whether they managed to make it into Parliament.
These include Louis Chua and Associate Professor Jamus Lim, who were brought into the top decision-making body after the 2020 General Election, where they contested in Sengkang GRC and won.
This time around, the new WP candidates range in age from 33 to 59, with eight of the 14 in their 30s, and the rest in their 40s and 50s.
That the party is able to attract younger candidates is also key to its renewal, say analysts. - The Straits Times/ANN