SINGAPORE – Several new and old faces from the National Solidarity Party (NSP) were spotted during a walkabout in Tampines on March 16.
These included NSP’s president Reno Fong, 54, and vice-president Mohd Ridzwan Mohammad, 63, who had both contested in Tampines GRC in the 2020 General Election.
Both have confirmed their intentions to run in Tampines GRC in the coming general election, with Mr Fong leading the team.
The other NSP members touted as potential candidates in Tampines GRC are Mr Lim Rui Xian, 36, an operations manager; Ms Nur Farahiyah Mahfoot, 39, a safety officer; and Mr Thamilselvan Karuppaya, 57, who is self-employed.
They were spotted among the 50 or so members of the opposition coalition at Our Tampines Hub and outside Masjid Darul Ghufran in Tampines Avenue 5 on March 16.
The group, which consisted of members from NSP, Red Dot United, Singapore People’s Party (SPP) and Singapore United Party, had been handing out pamphlets and dates to Muslims to break their fast in the evening during the holy month of Ramadan.
This is NSP’s first walkabout since the release of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) report on March 11.
Other key figures at the outreach event were NSP secretary-general Spencer Ng and SPP secretary-general Steve Chia.
Speaking to the media after the event, Mr Fong confirmed that Mr Ng will be running again in Sembawang.
He said, however, that the party’s slate of candidates for the five-member Tampines GRC was still being decided.
“We won’t be introducing them so soon. It’ll be a mixture of candidates that contested before, like myself, and maybe two to three new faces,” he said. “The new faces, we’re still giving them some time, giving them some warm-up. So, when the time is right, we will have a press release to officially announce it to the public.”
Mr Fong said he felt the boundary changes were unfair, and that the formation of Tampines Changkat SMC made it difficult for opposition parties.
(Clockwise) National Solidarity Party members touted as potential candidates Nur Farahiyah Mahfoot, Thamilselvan Karuppaya, Reno Fong, Lim Rui Xian and Mohd Ridzwan Mohammad at Our Tampines Hub on March 16.ST PHOTOS: ARIFFIN JAMAR
Tampines Changkat SMC was largely carved out from Tampines GRC, and also takes in a polling district from East Coast GRC.
The EBRC had recommended the new SMC as Tampines GRC had seen significant population growth in the last five years due to several new housing developments.
Mr Fong said: “I don’t think anyone would dare to say it’s fair.
“Changkat has been a stronghold of the People’s Action Party all these years… It’s very difficult ground there because we have to admit that the grassroots there are very strong.”
Asked if NSP would contest in the single-member constituency, Mr Fong said there was a “good chance” the party would still do so, but it would have to field a strong candidate who is a familiar face, and not a new face. He said NSP was willing to give way if another opposition party were to contest there with a better candidate.
Tampines GRC and Tampines Changkat SMC are expected to be hotly contested in the coming election, with talk of a four-way fight between the PAP, Workers’ Party (WP), NSP and People’s Power Party (PPP) in Tampines even before the EBRC report was released.
PPP secretary-general Goh Meng Seng has said his party intends to contest in both Tampines GRC and Tampines Changkat SMC.
He has also told the media he was confident of a good result in Tampines, as he had previously led the NSP team in the 2011 General Election and obtained 42.78 per cent of the vote share.
Tampines Changkat SMC was largely carved out from Tampines GRC, and also takes in a polling district from East Coast GRC. ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
It was the best showing by an opposition party in the GRC since its formation in 1988.
Mr Goh, who was previously the secretary-general of NSP, stepped down after the 2011 General Election and set up the PPP in 2015.
Asked to comment on Mr Goh potentially contesting against his former party in Tampines, Mr Fong said Singapore is a free country and it was up to the people to decide what to make of it.
“It seems like he likes to move around. He has not contested in the same constituency twice,” said Mr Fong.
Mr Goh, who has never been elected, first contested in the 2006 General Election in Aljunied GRC with the WP, followed by Tampines GRC with the NSP in 2011.
In 2015, he contested in Chua Chu Kang GRC with the PPP. His most recent outing in 2020 was in MacPherson SMC with the PPP. He has said it would be his last election.
Mr Fong said NSP will continue to focus on the GRCs in Tampines and Sembawang, despite saying it also intends to contest Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, Jalan Besar GRC, Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, Tampines Changkat SMC and Sembawang West SMC.
“Our commitment to the Tampines residents is there for them to see,” he said. “Our key areas are still Tampines and Sembawang. The rest are our second, third choices.”
Join ST’s WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.