• Minister Chan Chun Sing said WP’s Dennis Tan should substantiate the allegation with evidence 
• Mr Tan was not present in Parliament on Thursday to respond to Mr Chan
• Mr Chan said the Elections Department had still not received any report from Mr Tan on his allegation

SINGAPORE — Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing has called on opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Dennis Tan to substantiate his allegation that representatives from the ruling party had pulled down the Workers' Party's (WP) posters from their original height in Hougang during the July General Election (GE). 

Mr Tan, WP's MP for Hougang, told Parliament on Monday (Aug 31) that a resident had told him that this happened during the GE hustings and he had “no reason to doubt what she said”. 

Speaking at the start of Thursday’s parliamentary sitting, Mr Chan said that anyone who makes such allegations publicly should substantiate them with evidence, particularly when the statements are made in the House. 

“In the spirit of constructive politics that we discussed in recent days in this House, it cannot be that a member stands up to raise doubts and does not follow through to substantiate his allegations,” Mr Chan said on the fourth day of the debate on the President’s Address. 

Mr Chan is the ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) second assistant secretary-general. 

As Mr Tan was not present in Parliament on Thursday, Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin asked if another WP MP wished to respond on his behalf. 

None, however, did so. TODAY has asked Mr Dennis Tan for comment.

Mr Tan fended off the PAP’s Mr Lee Hong Chuang to retain WP’s Hougang stronghold at the GE on July 10.

Mr Chan said on Thursday that the Elections Department (ELD) had not received any report from Mr Tan on his allegation, despite an invitation for him to do so. 

Mr Tan replied to ELD on Wednesday to say that he did not make a report during the GE because he was focusing on his election campaign and that he has “no plans to do so now”, Mr Chan said.

Mr Chan said ELD takes all such allegations seriously, and would investigate them thoroughly and impartially.

“This is to be fair to all parties involved, protect the integrity of the election processes and continue to uphold trust in our elections.”

WHAT DENNIS TAN SAID 

Mr Tan said on Monday that there were two complaints against WP’s Hougang team that were filed with ELD during the GE campaigning period.

The first involved 13 allegations of WP’s election posters being below the requisite height of 2.2m. This height requirement is meant to prevent posters from obstructing the line of sight for motorists. 

Mr Tan said the complaint left his volunteers “puzzled” because they had taken care to follow ELD’s regulations.

A second complaint with similar allegations came two days later, despite his volunteers rectifying the issue, Mr Tan said.

Mr Tan also took issue with how the PAP team had planted its flags in front of WP’s banners in the ward. 

His comments sparked an exchange with PAP’s Bukit Batok MP Murali Pillai, who asked if Mr Tan felt that the ruling party was using its “power of incumbency” against opponents unfairly. 

Mr Murali also asked if Mr Tan would accept that ELD dealt with his complaints in “an even-handed way”.

In response, Mr Tan repeated his account of the events. Pointing to the issue of PAP flags around Hougang coffee shops, he said this was something that he would never have envisaged when he was competing against PAP in Fengshan in 2015. He lost to PAP’s Ms Cheryl Chan in that ward that year. 

He acknowledged that ELD had been even-handed in dealing with complaints. 

In response to media queries on Monday, ELD said that no matter the political party, when such complaints are filed, it would ask the election agent to rectify the posters in breach of the rules within three hours.

"If this is done, no further action will be taken. In most cases, rectifications were done within the three-hour time frame and no further action was taken," it had said. 

"This was also the case for the complaints relating to Mr Dennis Tan’s posters."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report stated that Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing asked in Parliament if another WP MP wished to respond on Mr Dennis Tan's behalf as he was not present. This was incorrect. It was Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin who posed the question. We are sorry for the error.