Reform Party unveils potential slate of 7 candidates for upcoming GE

SINGAPORE — The Reform Party unveiled its slate of seven potential candidates for the upcoming General Election, including four who have contested in the last election, in a virtual meet-and-greet on Facebook’s live stream on Monday (June 15).

The online event, which was scheduled to start at 7pm, was marred by technical glitches before it finally kicked off one-and-a-half hours later.

The event lasted for an hour, with the potential candidates introducing themselves and taking questions posed by viewers on the comment section in the live stream.

The seven candidates are led by Reform Party’s secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam, 61, along with three others who had contested in West Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the 2015 election, taking 21.43 per cent of the vote.

The first to introduce himself was party chairman Andy Zhu Laicheng, 37, a marketing director at a real estate agency. He said he believed that the upcoming election will be a “tough” one and he called on people to join the party.

The second was party treasurer Noraini Yunus, 52, who works in telemarketing. She said she wants to push for early disbursement of Central Provident Fund (CPF) monies in the next General Election and promote child benefits of S$300 a month if elected to Parliament.

The third was Mr Darren Soh, 52, a finance professional in Hong Leong Bank. He did not speak during the meeting due to technical difficulties. His biodata, which was provided by the party, states that he aims to raise issues on poverty and social stratification.

Three new candidates also introduced themselves during the virtual meeting.

One is Mr Charles Yeo, 30, a criminal defence lawyer who described human rights advocate M Ravi as his mentor. Mr Yeo said that he believes in liberal democracy and accountability, and pledged to contribute his legal knowledge and resources to support the party.

Another new candidate is Mr Mahaboob Batcha, 52, deputy treasurer of the party and board director of oil and gas company Asiapacz Solution. Mr Mahaboob, who joined the party as a volunteer in 2008, did not elaborate on issues he intends to champion.

The final one is Mr Gurdev Singh, 55, an assistant property manager with real estate firm Colliers International Valuation and Consultancy. Mr Singh, who became a party member in 2009, said that he will champion CPF reforms.

When asked which constituencies the candidates will contest, party chairman Mr Zhu said that the party will not reveal the information yet, but pointed out that it had contested in West Coast GRC, Ang Mo Kio GRC and Radin Mas ward in previous elections.

“We are still in talks with other opposition parties to solve our area of contest,” he added.

The party plans to organise another virtual meet-and-greet on Facebook over the weekend.

The next General Election has to take place by April next year.