Lawrence Wong, Desmond Lee elected to PAP's top committee for first time

SINGAPORE - Education Minister Lawrence Wong and National Development Minister Desmond Lee have been elected to the People's Action Party's top decision-making body for the first time, reflecting the acknowledgement by party cadres of their prominence on the national stage.

Both men, who are seen as key members of the PAP's fourth-generation leadership team, were co-opted into the central executive committee (CEC) at the last biennial party conference in 2018.

More than 3,000 party cadres voted on Sunday (Nov 8) at the PAP's biennial party conference, with the top 12 nominees elected to the CEC for a two-year term.

Besides Mr Wong and Mr Lee, those who garnered the most number of votes were, in no particular order: Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Mr Heng Swee Keat, Mr Chan Chun Sing, Mr K. Shanmugam, Mr Ong Ye Kung, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Ms Grace Fu, Mr Masagos Zulkifli and Mr Gan Kim Yong.

The 12 CEC members were elected by secret ballot from a list of 19 nominees.

Mrs Josephine Teo and Ms Indranee Rajah were co-opted into the CEC as they got the 13th and 14th highest votes. The PAP did not disclose the number of votes each received.

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The Straits Times understands that the other names on the ballot were labour chief Ng Chee Meng, newly-promoted ministers Maliki Osman and Edwin Tong, Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary and North West District mayor Alex Yam.

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, who was co-opted in 2018, was dropped from the list of nominees this time round, signalling the 3G leadership making way for younger leaders.

Mr Ng, who lost the contest for Sengkang GRC in the July general election, had been elected into the top 12 in 2018. Ms Indranee was also in the top 12 that year.

The exact roles of the new CEC will be determined when they hold their first meeting soon. The committee is also likely to co-opt up to four more members later.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.