Workers’ Party to vote on central executive committee that will lead party into general election

SINGAPORE - The Workers’ Party (WP) will hold its party conference on June 30 to elect a new leadership team that will take it into the upcoming general election (GE).

Although the name list for the party’s internal election will be revealed only on the day itself, WP secretary-general Pritam Singh, 47, and chairwoman Sylvia Lim, 59, are expected to run for their current posts. One thing to look out for is whether former party chief Low Thia Khiang will remain in the line-up.

Mr Singh, who is Leader of the Opposition, returned unopposed in the party’s last internal election on Nov 12, 2022. He has been party leader since 2018.

At the same 2022 election, Ms Lim was challenged by long-time WP member Tan Bin Seng – a former WP chairman and one-time GE candidate – but won with about two-thirds of the total vote, said cadres who were present then. She has been chairwoman of the party since 2003.

The party’s cadres, members with voting rights, vote for the two top leadership positions separately. They then vote for other members to hold office in the party’s top decision-making body.

At the 2022 election, the party voted 13 other members into its central executive committee (CEC), excluding Mr Singh and Ms Lim.

But there are now 11 of them left, after the departure of two key CEC members – Mr Leon Perera, 53, then head of the media team; and Ms Nicole Seah, 37, then youth wing president.

They include: Aljunied GRC MPs Faisal Manap, 49, and Gerald Giam, 46; Sengkang GRC MPs He Ting Ru, 41, Louis Chua, 37, and Jamus Lim, 48; Hougang MP Dennis Tan, 53; former party chief Low Thia Khiang, 67; former GE candidates Nathaniel Koh, 40, and Kenneth Foo, 47; as well as Mr Tan Kong Soon, 47, also a CEC member from 2016 to 2018; and Mr Ang Boon Yaw, 42, a lawyer who started volunteering with the party in 2012.

Mr Perera, who was an MP for Aljunied GRC, and Ms Seah, who was a key member of the party’s East Coast GRC team in the 2020 GE, resigned from the WP in July 2023 over their extramarital affair.

This happened after a video clip showing them sharing an intimate moment surfaced online.

In 2021, Ms Raeesah Khan, 30, then an MP for Sengkang GRC, resigned after she admitted to lying in Parliament about a sexual assault victim being treated shabbily by the police. It turned out she never witnessed such an episode.

Mr Singh was subsequently implicated during a parliamentary committee hearing into Ms Khan’s misconduct, and was charged in March with lying to the committee.

While there has been some unhappiness within the party over how Mr Singh handled those issues, this is unlikely to affect support for him at the internal election, said a long-time party member who did not want to be named.

Political watcher and Singapore Management University associate professor of law Eugene Tan reckons it will be a “relatively routine party election with no huge surprises”.

One thing that observers will be watching for is whether Mr Low, the former WP chief, will continue to feature in the CEC line-up, Prof Tan said.

Mr Low’s presence will be a stabilising force in the light of setbacks such as Mr Singh being charged and Mr Perera and Ms Seah resigning, he added.

Mr Low has been a regular fixture in the CEC since he joined the party in the 1980s. He was elected party chief in 2001, and held the post for 17 years until 2018 when he stepped down.

Prof Tan said the party will likely rally behind Mr Singh’s leadership, notwithstanding the criminal charges against him.

“This closing of ranks is another signal to Singaporeans that they will remain undaunted in the face of challenges,” he added.

The WP CEC is typically elected every two years by the party’s cadres.

But this time around, the election comes five months early, following the last one in November 2022.

Party cadres who spoke to The Straits Times said the early internal election will give the party time to firm up its CEC as it gears up for the next GE, due by November 2025.

In the past six months, the party has stepped up its outreach efforts, going to its usual stomping grounds to sell its Hammer newsletter, and also making more house visits in areas it has contested in the past.