The Progress Singapore Party chief, Dr Tan Cheng Bock, has reiterated a suggestion that elections should not be called early in order to avoid a Covid-19 health crisis.
Dr Tan issued a video statement on Saturday (March 28) in response to comments in Parliament on Wednesday (March 25) by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean that suggestions to delay elections and for the President to form a caretaker government were unconstitutional.
The PSP leader defended his earlier proposal for a caretaker government if elections cannot be held by the April 2021 deadline and added that a constitutional problem caused by delaying the elections is better than a health crisis.
In the 6-minute video on the party’s Facebook page, Dr Tan said: “I think (SM Teo) may have missed my main point.”
He added that the Government had a choice to either call an early election in 2020, or to wait until the last possible date in April 2021.
“Senior Minister Teo also said in Parliament that an early general election will allow Singapore to decide who they want to captain the ship into the future,” said Dr Tan.
“But can he accept that an early general election means that the ship will potentially carry many more Singaporeans infected with Covid-19, and is this the risk he is prepared to take with our overtaxed health crisis?” he asked.
https://www.facebook.com/progresssingaporepartyofficial/videos/582722185675320/
He said that Singapore’s ministers and ministries are already hard-pressed — and would have to spread themselves out even thinner if an election were to occur — figuring out how to safely carry out the electoral process.
The calls not to hold an early election were also addressed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a media interview at the Istana a day earlier, on Friday (May 27).
Mr Lee had said: “I think it is a very difficult decision because we are going into a very big storm and you want to have the strongest team and mandate, and the longest runway so that Singapore can have the best leadership to see it through this storm.” /TISG