[SINGAPORE] – Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said he expects “more than one new face” to be part of the Sembawang slate for the coming general election, The Straits Times reported on Sunday (March 23).
Mr Ong, who is the anchor minister for Sembawang GRC, was asked by reporters if there would be a new face on his team. He was attending an event on March 23 to open a new outdoor obstacle course and water play area at the Bukit Canberra integrated sports and community hub.
“I’m very eager to introduce them to residents and introduce them to the media,” he replied, adding that he is checking with party headquarters every week to see “whether they have confirmed candidates deployed to us”.
Sembawang GRC, which was created in 1988 and is made up of mostly Housing Board flats, is currently split into five divisions, namely Woodlands, Admiralty, Canberra, Sembawang Central and Sembawang West.
Sembawang West, which is helmed by MP Poh Li San, will be carved out as a single-member constituency at the general election. It is unclear who the PAP will field in the new single seat at the polls.
The current MPs for Sembawang GRC are Mr Ong (Sembawang Central), Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Canberra), Mr Vikram Nair (Admiralty), Ms Mariam Jaafar (Woodlands) and Ms Poh.
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On Sunday, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) secretary-general Chee Soon Juan announced his bid to contest the newly created Sembawang West Single Member Constituency (SMC). SDP will also be fielding a team at Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC), while party chairman Paul Tambyah will contest Bukit Panjang SMC for a second time, Dr Chee told reporters in a media doorstop after a walkabout in Sembawang West.
For GE2025, the SDP will be embarking on a “Northern strategy” and returning to old stomping grounds, said Dr Chee. The opposition party had previously contested Sembawang GRC in 2006 and 2011.
The party will announce its candidates for Sembawang GRC “in due course” and will share updates on the other constituencies it plans to contest in the next two weeks, he added.
Prof Tambyah, who was also present at the media doorstop, said it was “no secret” that SDP has been walking the grounds of Sembawang since 2022.
As for Bukit Panjang, Prof Tambyah said he has covered 135 of the 150 blocks in the district and has been engaging with residents.
He lost his previous contest for Bukit Panjang SMC to PAP opponent Liang Eng Hwa, with 46.3 per cent of the votes. He was SDP’s best performer overall in the last GE.
Besides Bukit Batok and Bukit Panjang SMCs, SDP had contested and lost in three other constituencies in GE2020: Yuhua SMC, Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, and Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.
Under the latest changes to electoral boundaries, Yuhua SMC has since been split, with some parts absorbed into the new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC and the remainder to form part of the new Jurong Central SMC.
The upcoming GE sees extensive boundary changes in Singapore, with only five GRCs and four SMCs remaining unchanged in the latest EBRC report.
The new electoral map consists of 33 electoral divisions, up from 31 in the last GE. There are now a total of 18 GRCs and 15 SMCs, up from the existing 17 GRCs and 14 SMCs.
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