SINGAPORE — The Workers' Party (WP) held a news conference on Wednesday (July 19) announcing the resignations of senior members Leon Perera and Nicole Seah following their extramarital affair. 

WP Secretary-General Pritam Singh said that Mr Perera, a Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied GRC, has informed the acting Speaker of Parliament that he will be resigning as an MP.

The pair previously sat on the WP's central executive committee (CEC). Mr Perera was heading the media team while Ms Seah was the youth wing president.

CNA looks at the timeline of events that led to Mr Perera and Ms Seah's resignations from the WP.

GE2020

At the 2020 elections, Mr Perera joined the Aljunied GRC team led by party chief Pritam Singh, which won nearly 60 per cent of the votes. 

The WP team comprised incumbents Mr Singh, Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Faisal Manap, with Mr Perera and Mr Gerald Giam being the new additions replacing Mr Chen Show Mao and party stalwart Mr Low Thia Khiang.

Mr Perera first emerged onto Singapore's political scene when he ran as a candidate for East Coast GRC during the 2015 general election. He subsequently became a Non-Constituency MP, before joining the team which retained their Aljunied stronghold.

At the 2020 General Election, Ms Seah was among the WP candidates that ran against a PAP team anchored by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in East Coast GRC.

The WP team lost, 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.

Ms Seah joined the WP in 2015 after stints with the Reform Party and National Solidarity Party. She shot to online fame as the youngest female candidate at the 2011 general election, when she was 24.

AFTER GE2020

According to Mr Singh during the news conference on Wednesday, Mr Perera and Ms Seah admitted that the affair started "shortly after" GE2020, but that it had stopped "some time ago".

Both Mr Perera and Ms Seah are married.

Mr Perera, who turns 53 this year, has two children. Ms Seah, 36, had her second child in April last year.

2021

It was further revealed during Wednesday's news conference that Mr Singh was approached by Mr Perera's driver "sometime between late 2020 and early 2021". 

The driver said in a WhatsApp message that Mr Perera and Ms Seah were meeting "very often" at restaurants and hotels, and had been seen hugging and holding hands.

Mr Singh said on Wednesday that there was no evidence or corroborating information at that time to support the allegation. He asked Mr Perera about the allegations, and he refuted the claims. 

"Leon confirmed that the allegations of his driver were untrue. Leon also shared with me that he was in an ongoing dispute with his driver and was about to terminate his services and had sought legal advice on the allegations of his driver," Mr Singh said.

Over the course of the next few months, the driver also shared "substantively the same information" with other members of the party, he added.

These members — Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Gerald Giam, Mr Dennis Tan and Mr Jamus Lim — have been named in several media reports. 

"When they received these messages from Leon's driver, all of them sought to verify these allegations with Leon. Leon told them that there was no truth to these allegations," Mr Singh added.

He added that there was no "corroborative evidence" to support the allegations being made, and it was a single source whose services were about to be terminated.

"In our judgement, it was most appropriate to speak to Leon directly. And the answer that he gave me... suggested to me that that was where I was going to let the matter rest," said Mr Singh.

"However, had there been a different or new element in the matter, for example, some corroborative evidence or another source that came to confirm that this is an issue, then I'm quite sure that the party would have taken a different course of action."

Several members of the central executive committee also separately approached Ms Seah about the allegations, which she also refuted.

JULY 17, 2023

A video surfaces online, suggesting an "inappropriate exchange" between what appeared to be Mr Perera and Ms Seah.

The silent 15-second clip showed Mr Perera dining with Ms Seah while holding and stroking her hands.

It is not known when or where the video was shot. It was first posted by Facebook user "Victoria Wang" and as of Tuesday evening, the video and the account were no longer available.

Mr Singh said he saw the video for the first time on Monday and does not know when or where it was taken.

"The video or even any other evidence was actually not known to myself and I can say not known to any of my (central executive committee) members because I asked that question to them in the course of our fact-finding process over the last few days," he added.

He then immediately contacted Mr Perera and arranged to meet him that afternoon. He also arranged to meet Ms Seah separately the same day.

"They were disappointed in themselves. They were disappointed with ... the pain they had caused," said Mr Singh.

"In Leon's case, for sure the pain he had caused his family members. In Nicole's case, she had approached her loved ones earlier to speak about the matter, and she had been resolving the matter earlier. And the process of healing started with her much earlier, after the affair ended."

WP's central executive committee met later that evening to discuss the matter and "come to a decision", said Mr Singh.

JULY 18, 2023

Ms Seah resigned from the WP on Tuesday.

"I am deeply sorry for bringing disrepute to the Party's standing and the hard work of its members and volunteers," she said in her resignation letter.

"My actions were selfish and reckless. In pursuing impropriety, I have caused grave disappointment to the voters of East Coast GRC, and a significant base of members and volunteers who have sacrificed their personal time and resources to support the extensive groundwork we have done over the last few years."

JULY 19, 2023

Mr Perera resigned from the party on Wednesday, said Mr Singh during the news conference.

In his resignation letter, Mr Perera said that he had fallen short of the standards expected of him.

"I hope to devote my time to my family in the weeks and months ahead, so as to address the hurt I have caused to them, which is my greatest regret," he added. CNA