Hazel Poa stepping down as NSP secretary-general

By Kumaran Pillai

Hazel Poa is stepping down as secretary general of the National Solidarity Party (NSP).  She has been suffering from stress-related ailments for the last couple of months and has not been showing up for the party’s monthly meetings, NSP president Sebastian Teo told The Independent Singapore.
Poa is still a council member and her husband, Tony Tan, the organizing secretary.
She announced her resignation as secretary-general at the central executive committee (CEC) meeting attended by about 13 members last night. They accepted her resignation and thanked her for her contribution to the party.
The party will call for an election within one month to elect the next secretary-general.
When asked whether she would be contesting the next general election, Teo said it was too early to say. He hoped she would recover well enough to contest in the next round.
Poa,  43, a Public Service Commission (PSC) scholar, and her husband, also 43, a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) scholar, both graduated from Cambridge and were part of the five-member NSP team that contested the Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the May 2011 general election.
A former Administrative Service officer, Poa runs the SmartLab private school and chain of education centres with her husband.
She was elected NSP secretary-general in June 2011 after the resignation of Goh Meng Seng and re-elected in April this year.