Reform Party to hold virtual panel discussion and share where they stand on policy issues

After announcing the constituencies that they’ll be contesting in the upcoming General Election, the Reform Party (RP) is ramping up its online presence with voters today (June 15). 

The opposition party — headed by secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam — will be holding its first virtual Meet-the-People session tonight via Google Meet, which will be broadcasted on Facebook Live from 7pm to 9pm.  

RP noted that viewers will be able to find out during the panel discussion where its members stand on Singapore’s policy issues. 

Members of the public are invited to the session via RP’s Facebook livestream, and not join in directly on Google Meet as initially indicated. 

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Back in March, RP assured that it will “pick up from where [they] left off” and will contest West Coast GRC, Ang Mo Kio GRC, and Radin Mas SMC this year. 

“Including Radin Mas SMC, it had been 11 years since we walked the ground, meeting up with our supporters and getting to know our residents,” they wrote in a Facebook post. 

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In the last General Election in 2015, the party faced heavy defeats in the three constituencies they fought in. 

In Radin Mas SMC, RP’s Kumar Appavoo garnered 12.71 per cent of the votes, barely budging the seat of the incumbent People’s Action Party (PAP) candidate Sam Tan. 

In West Coast GRC, the RP team consisting of secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaretnam, chairman Andy Zhu, Darren Soh, and Noraini Yunus lost to the PAP team, who won 78.57 per cent of the vote. 

The results were similar in Ang Mo Kio GRC, where the PAP team — helmed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong — snatched 78.6 per cent of the votes. The RP squad that went against them included prominent activists like lawyer M. Ravi, blogger Roy Ngerng, and counsellor Gilbert Goh, as well as Siva Chandran (who worked on Palme D’or-nominated Tamil film My Magic), entrepreneur Osman Sulaiman, and former banker Jesse Loo. 

The RP team who contested in Ang Mo Kio GRC also raised some eyebrows after they apparently set up their candidate unveiling outside a hair salon. 

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Kenneth Jeyaratnam has been vocal about holding the election during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has called for it to be postponed till next year. 

ilyas@asiaone.com