GE2025: Stage set for four-way fight in Tampines GRC; PAP and WP go head-to-head in Tampines Changkat SMC (2025)

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SINGAPORE – Three opposition parties will duke it out in the quest to win Tampines GRC and unseat the incumbent PAP team led by Social and Family Development Minister Masagos Zulkifli.

After successfully submitting their nomination papers at Poi Ching School in Tampines Street 71, the WP, National Solidarity Party (NSP) and People’s Power Party (PPP) will go up against the PAP when Singaporeans go to the polls on May 3.

The ruling party’s team is led by Mr Masagos, 62, who was first elected to Parliament in 2006.

His team includes two other incumbents: Dr Koh Poh Koon, 53, Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Sustainability and the Environment; and Mr Baey Yam Keng, 54, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Sustainability and the Environment.

Rounding out the PAP team are two political newcomers: former chief of army David Neo, 47, and Dr Charlene Chen, 43, an assistant professor of marketing at Nanyang Technological University.

The Workers’ Party, which had kept coy about where its candidates would contest, confirmed that its five-member team comprises party vice-chair Faisal Manap, 49; Mr Jimmy Tan, 53, co-founder of industrial equipment supply firm Immanuel Engineering; Institute of Mental Health senior principal clinical psychologist Ong Lue Ping, 48; former diplomat Eileen Chong, 32; and Mr Michael Thng, 37, co-founder of technology start-up Showdrop.

Mr Faisal, who entered Parliament in 2011 and was an MP for Aljunied GRC, joined the Tampines GRC slate in a last-minute switch on Nomination Day.

Four of the WP’s five team members were only recently unveiled to the public in a series of press briefings over the previous weekend.

This is the first time the WP has entered the fray in Tampines GRC. However, it has been laying the groundwork since at least 2016, including making house visits and doing the rounds in the neighbourhood.

NSP, which has contested Tampines GRC in the last three elections, is fielding its president Reno Fong, 56; vice-president Mohd Ridzwan Mohammad, 63; and assistant secretary-general Eugene Yeo, 49; financial planner Zee Phay, 32; and Mr Thamilselvan Karuppaya, 57, who is self-employed.

PPP secretary-general Goh Meng Seng, 55, is leading his party’s team.

Joining him are party chairman Derrick Sim, 44; landscaping executive Vere Nathan, 26; green tech firm founder Peter Soh, 65; and entrepreneur Arbaah Haroun, 50.

In a speech addressing PAP supporters at the nomination centre, Mr Masagos, flanked by his teammates, thanked residents in Tampines GRC for their support.

“Our good connection with one another, between communities... is why we have delivered Our Tampines Hub, Tampines Eco Town, and we will deliver even more,” he said to cheers, before leading supporters in cheers of “Tampines together”.

Next came the WP team, which walked to the microphone amid cheers of “Workers’ Party” and the sound of klaxons.

Speaking in Malay, Mr Faisal said: “For years, you have asked for WP to come to this GRC... For this election, we have fulfilled your wish. Give us your support to represent you in Parliament.”

Tampines GRC has been a PAP stronghold since its formation in 1988, when the group representation constituency system was introduced.

At the last election in 2020, the PAP team won 66.41 per cent of the vote – outperforming the national vote share of 61.24 per cent. In 2015, the PAP polled 72.06 per cent in Tampines, with a national vote share of 69.9 per cent.

The PAP had faced a straight contest in Tampines GRC at every election, except in 1997, when there was a walkover.

That same year was also the last time there was a four-way fight at the polls, when the PAP, NSP, an independent candidate and the Democratic Progressive Party vied for the Chua Chu Kang single seat. PAP candidate Low Seow Chay emerged victorious with 61.9 per cent of the vote.

This year, a similar four-way fight had been expected for the newly carved-out Tampines Changkat SMC, but on Nomination Day, only the PAP and WP filed papers to contest the single seat.

Incumbent Tampines GRC MP Desmond Choo, an assistant secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress and director of its policy division, is contesting the single seat under the PAP banner.

Mr Choo, 47, is the Mayor of North East District, and made his electoral debut in the 2011 General Election, when he lost to WP candidate Yaw Shin Leong in Hougang SMC.

He lost again the following year in a by-election – this time against WP candidate Png Eng Huat – before entering Parliament in 2015 as part of the PAP’s Tampines GRC team.

This year, he is up against another WP candidate, Mr Kenneth Foo, who stood in Nee Soon GRC in 2015 and East Coast GRC in 2020 under the party’s sky-blue banner.

Mr Foo, 48, is a deputy director at the Singapore Cancer Society, and is also deputy organising secretary of the WP.

Shortly after leaving Poi Ching School, the PAP team for Tampines GRC launched its manifesto for the constituency.

Titled Tampines Together: Model Town, Caring Community, the manifesto outlined the initiatives in Tampines town over the last five years and plans for other initiatives in the next five years.

Asked about the four-way fight in Tampines, Mr Masagos said: “I think Tampines residents should be very proud and honoured that so many opposition parties want to contest in Tampines.”

Regarding the WP’s fielding of Mr Faisal in Tampines, Mr Masagos said he did not know what the WP team would be campaigning on, but that the PAP team would be focusing on its own campaign and on the residents.

After the launch by the Tampines GRC team, Mr Choo told the media his previous losses to the WP in 2011 and 2012 strengthened his conviction to serve.

He said he had the utmost respect for Mr Foo, his opponent in Tampines Changkat.

“Kenneth is a very experienced campaigner,” he said. “Over the course of the next 10 days, I wish him luck.”

• Additional reporting by David Sun

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