Besides People’s Action Party’s Murali Pillai and Singapore Democratic Party’s Chee Soon Juan, several other hopefuls arrived at the nomination centre today, raising speculation that there may be a multi-cornered fight for the Bukit Batok single member constituency’s by-election.
One of the persons who turned up but failed to meet nomination criteria was Uber driver Shirwin Eu. He told reporters that he hoped one of the candidates will help him find nominees for his application. Bukit Batok’s former MP, David Ong, had previously helped an independent candidate who did not meet the nomination criteria find nominees to successfully support his application. The independent candidate, Samir Salim Neji, lost his deposit at the 2015 General Election (GE).
This is the second time the Uber driver has tried unsuccessfully to meet the nomination criteria. During the 2015 General Election, he failed in meeting the criteria for nomination for the contest in Bukit Panjang. At that time, he used his Facebook to ask potential nominees to turn up at the nomination centre saying that he will reimburse their transportation and food costs, and will also pay them $50 each.
Today, when reporters asked him why he would like to be a Member of Parliament (MP), the Uber driver said that he had no specific plans for Bukit Batok, but that he liked the fame and wealth which comes with being an MP.
"I'd like to enjoy the fame and wealth": Shirwin Eu on why he wants to be MP https://t.co/RwgH9qU2HS #SGByElection pic.twitter.com/1FExiP40r5
— Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia) April 27, 2016
Other politicians. both independent and political party members, also turned up at the nomination centre. One of them is Han Hui Hui who contested the Radin Mas constituency in 2015 GE. She turned up with her supporters, one of them being well-known socio-economic commentator, Leong Sze Hian. She however told reporters that they were there only as supporters of Dr Chee.
The other was veteran politician Kwan Yue Keng. He scored over 48 percent of the votes cast during the 1991 General Election as a candidate of Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). He left SDP to join National Solidarity Party (NSP). It is not known when he left NSP, but the recently-formed People’s Power Party said in their Facebook that Mr Kwan was their party member and that they had sent him to the nomination centre as a back-up – just in case the election officials disqualified Dr Chee.
News outlet The Middle Ground which covered the nomination of candidates today however mistakenly claimed that Mr Kwan had filed his nomination papers.
Independent Kwan Yue Keng, 68, has just filed his nomination papers. He contested as SDP member in 1991 GE in #BukitBatok, winning 48%
— The Middle Ground SG (@SGmiddleground) April 27, 2016
The online publication later retracted their newsfeed clarifying that Mr Kwan did not file for nomination.
So Kwan didn't file his papers. #chaokwan With Mr Fame/Fortune out of the way, it's a head-on fight between Murali & Chee #BukitBatok
— The Middle Ground SG (@SGmiddleground) April 27, 2016
After all the jostling for the 15-minutes of fame and false rumours, the election official finally announced that there was going to be a straight fight between PAP’s Murali and SDP’s Chee in the Bukit Batok by-election.
Mr Pillai spoke in all four languages after his nomination was confirmed. He asked voters of Bukit Batok to give him their votes so that together they can make the constituency a beautiful place. He told voters that if they voted for PAP, they are voting for a “better home, better future”.
Dr Chee Soon Juan who spoke next, spoke in Chinese first. He then said in English that if elected he will serve as a full-time MP of the constituency. His speech was cut-off towards the end by the election official. The official later told news outlets that Dr Chee had exceeded the time-limit given to each nominated candidates to make their Speeches.
Speaking to news outlets after the official nomination announcement, Dr Chee elaborated further on what he meant by serving as an elected MP.
“Every morning, when Mr Murali wakes up, his first destination will be his office. When I wake up every morning, my first destination is Bukit Batok. That’s the difference,” he said.