WP's Pritam Singh, Sylvia Lim re-elected, ex-MP Lee Li Lian returns to CEC

SINGAPORE - Workers’ Party (WP) secretary-general Pritam Singh and chairman Sylvia Lim were returned to their posts at the party’s biennial conference on June 30, paving the way for them to lead the opposition party into the next general election.

The party’s cadres also re-elected the other WP MPs into the central executive committee (CEC), along with former party chief Low Thia Khiang, 68, in an internal election marked by continuity.

The MPs are Aljunied GRC MPs Faisal Manap, 49, and Gerald Giam, 47; Sengkang GRC MPs He Ting Ru, 41, Louis Chua, 37, and Jamus Lim, 48, and Hougang MP Dennis Tan, 54.

Party sources told The Straits Times that Ms Lim, 59, was again challenged by long-time WP member Tan Bin Seng, but prevailed with about two-thirds of the vote to retain the post of party chair, which she has held since 2003.

Mr Singh, 48, returned unopposed.

There was a new addition to the CEC - former Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian, 46, who had stepped down from the party’s top decision-making body in 2020. The CEC lineup remains unchanged, apart from Ms Lee returning.

Rounding out the 14-member lineup are former GE candidates Nathaniel Koh, 41, and Kenneth Foo, 47; Mr Tan Kong Soon, 47, and Mr Ang Boon Yaw, 42, a lawyer who started volunteering with the party in 2012.

About 80 cadres cast their votes at the closed-door conference held at the Huone meeting and event venue at Clarke Quay on June 30.

Speaking to reporters after the conference, Mr Singh said it was a “fantastic result”. “We’re looking forward to working with this CEC for the next two years,” he added.

In a statement, WP said it will announce the CEC appointments in due course. “The new CEC has taken office, with a mix of members of different ages and backgrounds; and has started work with immediate effect.”

In the past six months, the WP has stepped up its outreach efforts, going to its usual stomping grounds to sell its Hammer newsletter, and also making more house visits in areas it has contested in the past.

The upcoming general election, due by November 2025, will be Mr Singh’s second at the helm.

In his first election outing as WP chief in 2020, the party achieved a watershed victory in Sengkang GRC, only the second such multi-member constituency to be won by an opposition party. The WP had first achieved the feat in 2011, when it pulled off a shock defeat in Aljunied GRC.

After the 2020 election, Mr Singh was made Leader of the Opposition.

But he has faced several crises in the past few years, most recently when he was charged in March 2024 with lying to a parliamentary committee.

The committee was investigating the conduct of Ms Raeesah Khan, 30, then a WP MP for Sengkang GRC, after she admitted to lying in Parliament about a sexual assault victim being treated shabbily by the police.

Mr Singh was asked in December 2021 about the matter by the committee, which later found that he had lied and referred the matter to the public prosecutor.

In 2022, Mr Singh also had to deal with the emergence online of a video clip that showed two key WP leaders, Mr Leon Perera, 53, and Ms Nicole Seah, 37, sharing an intimate moment.

Mr Perera, who was then an Aljunied GRC MP, and Ms Seah, who was part of the WP East Coast GRC team in the 2020 GE, eventually left the party over the incident.

Sunday’s uneventful election signals that the party has closed ranks behind Mr Singh’s leadership.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.