WP files motion on reserved election for parliament sitting
Workers’ Party (WP) chairman and Aljunied GRC Member of Parliament Sylvia Lim (right), seen here with WP's secretary-general Low Thia Khiang, has tabled an adjournment motion on an issue surrounding the Elected Presidency, which will be debated at the next Parliament sitting on Sept 11. TODAY file photo
Workers’ Party (WP) chairman and Aljunied GRC Member of Parliament Sylvia Lim has tabled an adjournment motion on an issue surrounding the Elected Presidency, which will be debated at the next Parliament sitting on Sept 11 — just two days before Nomination Day.
Writing on Facebook, the WP said the motion will be titled Counting from President Wee Kim Wee or President Ong Teng Cheong — policy decision or legal question?
The issue of whether the count for the hiatus-triggered model for the Elected Presidency should start from the term of Dr Wee or Mr Ong was part of the failed legal challenge mounted by former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock.
The motion was filed before Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong issued the writ of election yesterday. “In the wake of intense public discussion after the parliamentary debates and a court case on the reserved presidential election, the Workers’ Party believes it is in the public interest for the Government to clarify this issue surrounding the election of our Head of State,” the opposition party wrote on Facebook.
Last week, the Court of Appeal threw out Dr Tan’s legal challenge on the basis and timing of the reserved election. The panel of five judges, including Chief Justice (CJ) Sundaresh Menon, ruled that whether or not a President was voted into office by citizens was irrelevant in calculating the five-term trigger for a reserved election.
They added that Dr Tan’s contention that the Government should have started the count from the popularly-elected Mr Ong, instead of his predecessor Dr Wee, could not stand. The late Dr Wee was the first President to wield the powers of the Elected President as the scheme was introduced during his term in 1991.
This was because the constitutional amendments passed last year to make sure members of minority communities would occupy the highest office of the land from time to time had left it to Parliament to decide. In other words, Parliament was free to choose from any of the five most-recent presidential terms as the start of the 30-year-hiatus-triggered model, CJ Menon said.
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