Workers’ Party CEC election: Six members make way for new faces

SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) yesterday elected a new central executive council (CEC) that could take the opposition party to the next General Election, which is due by 2016.

Party chairman Sylvia Lim and secretary-general Low Thia Khiang retained their posts, as did the party’s seven other MPs and Non-Constituency MPs.

But six council members were not re-elected, making way for several new faces in what has been described as a fiercely but heathily contested biannual election.

CEC members not re-elected yesterday were deputy treasurer Frieda Chan, organising secretary Ng Swee Bee, organising secretary Toh Hong Boon, vice-chair of media team Jane Leong, webmaster Koh Choon Yong and council member Glenda Han.

Excluding Ms Lim and Mr Low, the new council has 12 members, down from 16 previously. Their term will be for two years. New CEC members include Temasek Polytechnic lecturer L Somasundaram and engineer John Yam Poh Nam, 52, who was in the council in 2008, but failed to be re-elected in 2010.

Mr Somasundaram, 51, joined the party in 2006 and contested unsuccessfully in the 2011 General Election in Moulmein-Kallang GRC.

Also elected yesterday was Dr Daniel Goh, 41, an associate professor of sociology at the National University of Singapore. He was co-opted without an election into the council last year.

Shipping lawyer Dennis Tan, 43, was similarly elected yesterday after being co-opted into the CEC last year.

Both men were introduced as new faces at last year’s Punggol East by-election.

Speaking to reporters after the three-and-a-half hour meeting at the party’s headquarters on Syed Alwi Road yesterday, Ms Lim said: “I think it was a very fiercely contested CEC election, with many people putting themselves up in the election and this is part of the democratic process.”

She declined to elaborate on the number of people who contested at the CEC, but said it was a “healthy contest”.

Ms Lim also said that, in terms of continuity, yesterday’s elections gave her confidence.

When asked if the newly elected CEC would be the team fielded for the next General Election, Ms Lim said it would depend on when the Prime Minister calls for it. “There’s no reason for me not to be confident in my team,” she said. “I’ve known them for quite a while, so they are not new entities in a sense.”

About 70 people attended yesterday’s meeting, held between 2pm and 5.30pm. When asked about the atmosphere in the meeting, members said it was “peaceful”.

One member, who is in his 60s, said the meeting went smoothly and that everyone was “generally happy”.

Asked why it took a while to count the votes, the member said: “We were sitting around and chatting about old times; that’s why we came down only now.”

Asked to comment on how the meeting went, Ms Lim said: “I don’t think we want to comment on what happened at the meeting, but it went smoothly.”