Tin Pei Ling hopes to contest MacPherson SMC

SINGAPORE — Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC Tin Pei Ling, who oversees the MacPherson ward, said today (July 26) she hopes she will not deployed elsewhere even if the ward will be a Single Member Constituency (SMC) in the upcoming General Election.

That said, she is confident of her chances and ready to campaign for the ward, and that there has been no indication within the party that she will contest in other areas. “Our actions will speak for itself,” said Ms Tin. “We are confident but we are not complacent. We will continue to do our best in serving the needs of our residents.”

Ms Tin was speaking to reporters after her walkabout at the wet market and hawker centre at Blk 89 Circuit Road this morning.

Indicating his support for Ms Tin was Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan Jin who was also greeting residents in the same area. He stressed that efforts on the ground do not change just because the electoral boundaries have been altered, since People’s Action Party (PAP) MPs have been working the ground to build relationships with residents. “Pei Ling is quite well prepared and well placed to run on her own,” said Mr Tan.

Mr Tan is currently the anchor minister at Marine Parade GRC and helms the Kembangan-Chai Chee ward. Ms Tin, who is heavily pregnant and due to give birth by Aug 4 said her role as a mother will allow her to better appreciate the challenges that young mothers and young families face.

In the last coupled of months, opposition parties including the National Solidarity Party and Singaporeans First have been sighted doing walkabouts in the area. Ms Tin said the ward will definitely see a contest but her priority is to serve the residents in the area.

The MacPherson ward was one of three newly created single seats for the upcoming elections after changes to the electoral boundaries were made public on Friday. The release of the report is the penultimate step before Parliament can be dissolved and elections are called.

But this is not the first time that MacPherson has been carved out into a single seat ward.

It has been an SMC for two periods in Singapore’s electoral history. The first was between 1968 and 1991 and the second was between 1997 and 2011. In the last election, it was absorbed into Marine Parade GRC.