National Solidarity Party to contest 12 seats in the next GE, prepared for 3-cornered fights

SINGAPORE — As the clock ticks down to the next General Election (GE), the National Solidarity Party (NSP) is gunning for the same seats that it contested in the last polls in 2015 — setting the stage for three-cornered fights in those areas.

NSP secretary-general Spencer Ng told the media on Sunday morning (March 22) that the party would return to the Sembawang and Tampines Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs), and the Pioneer and MacPherson single-member wards. There are 12 seats across these wards.

Mr Ng, 40, a business consultant, said he would lead NSP’s team in Sembawang GRC, where he contested in the 2015 election. The party’s president, Mr Reno Fong, 51, will helm the Tampines GRC team, Mr Ng said before a walkabout where members distributed bottles of hand sanitiser to shopkeepers at Blocks 826 and 827, along Tampines Street 81.

Mr Ng said the party was in the midst of deciding who else would be fielded in the election, which must be held before April 21 next year.

It is reviewing about 10 applicants who have been NSP members for two to eight years. Among them are entrepreneurs as well as information-technology and logistics professionals, said Mr Ng.

The constituencies that the NSP is gunning for are likely to overlap with those of other opposition parties, setting the scene for three-way fights with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

The constituencies are:

• Sembawang GRC, which the Progress Singapore Party (PSP), led by former PAP Member of Parliament Tan Cheng Bock, also plans to contest. Mr Ng said his party would meet PSP’s assistant treasurer Hazel Poa on Monday. He expects the PSP to attempt to dissuade the NSP from contesting in Sembawang GRC, but said the party’s “official stand is that we are contesting in these areas”.

• Tampines GRC. There is talk that the Workers’ Party (WP), which has done outreach in the constituency, could contest there.

• Pioneer Single-Member Constituency (SMC), where the People’s Voice party has indicated an interest in contesting.

• MacPherson SMC, which faced a three-way fight between the PAP, WP and NSP in the 2015 polls. The WP could return to the constituency in the next election.

Mr Ng said the NSP had been contesting in these areas for some time. “There is no reason for us not to contest in the same areas,” he said. “We did work the ground, visit residents and (interact) with them.”

The PSP had disclosed its intention to contest Sembawang GRC on March 18.

Asked if the NSP would pull out from the constituency if the PSP makes that request, Mr Ng said: “I do not think so at the moment, because we have been preparing for these areas for the past five years.”

The NSP lost Sembawang GRC to the PAP in 2015, garnering 27.72 per cent of the vote.

In Tampines GRC that same year, its vote share was 27.93 per cent.

In Pioneer, its candidate Elvin Ong received 23.65 per cent of the vote. Its candidate in MacPherson, Mr Cheo Chai Chen, drew just 215 out of about 26,300 votes (0.82 per cent).

Candidates who secure less than 12.5 per cent of the valid votes lose their election deposit, which was S$14,500 during the last GE.

Asked why the party decided to return to MacPherson despite the poor showing in 2015, Mr Ng said that the result from one election should not negate the work that the NSP has done in the ward.

He noted that the party’s former president, Mr Sebastian Teo, had been in MacPherson for a long time. Mr Teo, 72, the current head of its advisory committee, said he has been on the ground there for about 12 years.

Mr Ng said: “He has quite an intimate knowledge about the residents there and the people there recognise him. It is unfortunate that in the last round, our candidate performed very badly.”

Ultimately, Mr Ng said three-cornered fights, which have played out in previous elections, should be accepted as the norm.

On the timing of the election, which has not been set, Mr Ng echoed the position taken by several opposition parties in saying that it was “morally wrong” to hold a GE during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Nobody is complaining if they withhold the election until next year or even beyond the stipulated date (April 21, 2021). We can have a caretaker government to take care of Singapore,” he said.

REFORM PARTY TO RETURN TO FORMER BATTLEGROUNDS

Meanwhile, the Reform Party (RP) said in a Facebook post on Saturday that it would return to the West Coast and Ang Mo Kio GRCs as well as Radin Mas SMC — the same seats it contested in the last election.

It also contested the West Coast and Ang Mo Kio GRCs in 2011.

In the 2015 polls, RP received 21.43 per cent of the vote in West Coast GRC and 21.36 per cent in Ang Mo Kio. In Radin Mas, it received 12.72 per cent of the vote.

The PSP also plans to contest West Coast GRC in the coming polls.

RP said: “Including Radin Mas SMC, it has been 11 years since we walked the ground, meeting up with our supporters and getting to know our residents.”