SINGAPORE — Two key members of the Workers’ Party (WP), Aljunied MP Leon Perera and Ms Nicole Seah, have resigned over an extramarital affair.

Their relationship came to light after a video of the two behaving intimately over a meal surfaced on July 17.

On Wednesday (July 19), WP chief Pritam Singh confirmed that the two had been having an affair that started after the 2020 General Election, but that it had stopped some time ago. Mr Singh said that he had received both Mr Perera and Ms Seah's letters of resignation.

Ms Seah, 36, is the president of the Workers’ Party Youth Wing, and part of the party’s Central Executive Committee.

After rising to fame as the youngest candidate in the 2011 General Election, Ms Seah stepped away from the political arena for several years. She then returned to contest three years ago under the aegis of the WP.

Here’s a recap of her political journey thus far:

YOUNGEST CANDIDATE IN 2011 ELECTIONS

Ms Seah first contested with the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in the 2011 General Election.

But before that, she was a member of the Reform Party (RP). In February that year, she was among a group of RP members who quit en masse from the party, citing differences with secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaratnam.

Shortly after, the then-24-year-old was announced as part of a five-member NSP team standing in the Marine Parade GRC for the upcoming elections.

As the youngest candidate in that hotly contested GE, Ms Seah became the centre of attention and was pitted against the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) youngest candidate — then 27-year-old Tin Pei Ling, who was part of the PAP’s Marine Parade line-up.

It was the Group Representation Constituency’s first electoral contest since 1992.

SOCIAL MEDIA STAR

Ahead of polling day in 2011, Ms Seah made the news for being Singapore’s most “liked” politician on Facebook, ahead of then-Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

While she won fans with her passionate rally speeches and her poise when facing the media, Ms Tin drew online brickbats after a video of her stomping her foot and going “I don’t know what to say” went viral.

At one point, Ms Seah drew so much attention that former prime minister Goh Chok Tong said that the NSP team was a one-woman team.

Despite facing a PAP team led by Mr Goh, the NSP team garnered 43.36 per cent of the votes with a thin slate of candidates, among whom Ms Seah and former MP Cheo Chai Chen were the more recognisable names.

The better-than-expected result was attributed to Ms Seah’s popularity online and offline. It was also partly a reflection of the general swing against the ruling party, 2011 being the watershed election in which the PAP lost a GRC for the first time.

Later that year, Ms Seah supported opposition politician Tan Jee Say in his presidential bid. 

HIATUS FROM POLITICS

Two years after being propelled into the limelight, Ms Seah shared about the pressure she had been under and how it had affected her.

In a Facebook post, she said that 2013 had been the “worst year” of her life thus far. Besides relationship troubles, and a gruelling schedule, she had to deal with her grandmother’s cancer diagnosis.

Ms Seah said that she was “arm-twisted” into making bad decisions during the Presidential Election, and “felt like a fraud being invited to speak at conferences everywhere”. She also wrote of people sending her rape and death threats, and “burning out from all ends”.

She described having a panic attack, contracting dengue fever and spoke about how her health suffered. But she ended her post on a positive note, writing: “Lastly, whenever you're down and out, remember that the biggest blessing from here on is this — The only way now is to go up.”

That year, she also dealt with reports that suggested she was dating a married man, when the man in question was in fact divorced. The media outlets later issued an apology to Ms Seah.

After this crisis, she moved to Thailand for a job in the advertising industry.

In August 2014, she quit the NSP, calling it an “extremely difficult” decision to make.

During this time away from politics, Ms Seah was cast in a minor role in the film 1965 as the wife of a police inspector played by Mediacorp actor Qi Yuwu.

She married her husband Bryan in 2015 and gave birth to her first daughter in 2018. She had a second daughter in 2022.

COMEBACK IN 2020

Despite speculation that she would return when the next general election came around, Ms Seah did not contest in 2015.

She began volunteering with the Workers’ Party media team after GE2015 and later joined the party, running as a candidate in the 2020 election.

She was among the WP candidates who ran against a PAP team anchored by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in East Coast GRC. It was another close shave, with the PAP team winning 53.41 per cent of the votes.

Later in 2020, Ms Seah was elected to the party’s Central Executive Committee. She resigned from the WP on Jul 18, 2023. CNA