GE2020: PAP unveils line-ups for Sengkang and Marsiling-Yew Tee GRCs
PAP candidate Raymond Lye during a walkabout in Sengkang, June 28, 2020.
- Sengkang GRC will be helmed by Punggol North’s Ng Chee Meng
- MP Ong Teng Koon steps down, tears up
- New faces Hany Soh Hui Bin and Raymond Lye to contest in Marsiling Yew-Tee and Sengkang, respectively
SINGAPORE — The People’s Action Party (PAP) unveiled its line-ups for Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and the newly-formed Sengkang GRC during walkabouts on Sunday (June 28).
The team in Sengkang is helmed by labour chief Ng Chee Meng, who moved from his Punggol North ward. He is joined by Mr Lam Pin Min, whose Sengkang West ward was carved up in the redrawing of constituency boundaries, Sembawang GRC’s Amrin Amin and new candidate Raymond Lye.
Mr Lye, 54, is a managing partner at Union Law LLP, which he founded in 2014. He also chairs the Punggol East Citizens’ Consultative Committee and is a member of the executive committee of the Pasir Ris–Punggol Town Council.
Mr Ng, 51, noted that Sengkang has a younger demographic and most of its residents are in the sandwich generation — middle-aged adults who care for both their ageing parents and children.
He said that the team’s focus would be on livelihoods.
“The key thing is to help them keep their jobs, and when displaced, help them get new jobs. Beyond this we also want to address municipal issues," he said, adding that residents can look forward to a new aquatic playground and two new community centres.
Mr Amrin, 41, who is also the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health, said Sengkang GRC and his former Woodlands ward under Sembawang GRC are “quite different” and the new constituency will come with a new set of challenges.
“What I promise is the same level of dedication, same level of commitment, the same enthusiasm and the same grounded approach to politics.
“I will miss Woodlands very much but Sengkang, with its new set of challenges, I will serve with all my heart,” he added. He did not divulge who his replacement will be.
Over at Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, anchor minister Lawrence Wong walked the ground with fellow incumbents Zaqy Mohamad and Alex Yam and new candidate Hany Soh Hui Bin.
Two-term MP Ong Teng Koon, 43, who was also present, announced that he will not contest in this election.
Tearing up during an interview with members of the media, Mr Ong said: “I wish to thank the residents and friends of Woodgrove and Marsiling-Yew Tee for all your support. Over the past five years and since I was here in 2011, you have taken me into a part of your family that I'll be forever grateful for all of you.”
If elected, Ms Soh, the 33-year-old director at MSC Law Corporation, will replace Mr Ong in his Woodgrove ward.
In the 2015 election, the Marsiling-Yew Tee team which was co-anchored by Mr Wong and Madam Halimah Yacob — who left in 2017 to contest the presidential election — won 68.7 per cent of the vote against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).
This election, SDP has announced that it will contest Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC while the Workers’ Party (WP), which held Punggol East from 2013 to 2015 and fielded a candidate in Sengkang West in previous elections, will vie for Sengkang GRC.
WP’s Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian has been seen leading a team and walking the ground in Sengkang.
The new GRC — made up of the previous Sengkang West and Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMCs) — covers the precincts of Rivervale, Compassvale and Anchorvale, and will have 117,546 electors.
