SINGAPORE — The first of a series of public forums organised by REACH to engage Singaporeans on their views on the changes to the Elected Presidency (EP) was cancelled just a day prior to the event due to "poor response".

The forum, which was to have been led by Minister for Home Affairs and Law, Mr K Shanmugam, and Minister of State for Health and Communications and Information, Mr Chee Hong Tat, was supposed to take place on Thursday (Sept 29) evening. REACH cancelled the event on Wednesday.

Former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock, who had registered for the event, posted on Facebook on Thursday to express his disappointment that it was not taking place. He said: “Minister Shanmugam was due to speak and I wanted to hear what he had to say.”

He had planned to attend with his family and friends, having registered his attendance and received a confirmation earlier. He wrote: "Unfortunately (on Wednesday), I was disappointed to receive a message, that the forum was cancelled due to poor response. This forum would have been a great platform for Singaporeans to seek clarification on the matter.”

The Government had accepted the Constitutional Commission’s recommendations to refresh the scheme earlier this month — with a “hiatus-triggered” mechanism to ensure equal representation of all races and tweaks to the qualifying criteria for candidates. Parliament is expected to debate the issue in November.

Following Dr Tan’s Facebook post, some people commented on his post, suggesting that the event may have been cancelled because he was attending.

REACH, however, announced on its Facebook on Thursday evening that the event was cancelled due to “poor response”, and that the notice of cancellation had been made on Wednesday. It added: “In response to queries, we confirm that we do not have any registration under the name of Dr Tan Cheng Bock for this dialogue.”

Dr Tan responded in another Facebook post that he had registered under the alias Adrian Tan, which can be found on his identification card. He added that he had provided his NRIC number, address, handphone number and occupation during the registration process. He also uploaded a copy of the acceptance letter.

When asked why he had used an alias to register for the event, Dr Tan's personal assistant Alex Tan said: "Dr Tan is already known as Dr Adrian Tan to most people ever since he entered public life and public service." TODAY is checking with REACH on this matter.