Singapore — The National Solidarity Party announced on Sunday (March 22) that it will be fielding 12 candidates in the coming General Election (GE), i.e. in Sembawang and Tampines GRCs and in Pioneer and MacPherson SMCs.
NSP Secretary-General Spencer Ng said the party will be fielding candidates in the same areas it contested in the last GE in 2015.
Mr Ng and party members were on a walkabout at Blocks 826 and 827, Tampines Street 81, to give out hand sanitisers bearing the NSP logo to shopkeepers.
According to todayonline.com, Mr Ng will again lead the NSP contest in Sembawang, like he did in 2015, while NSP President Reno Fong will do the same for the candidates in Tampines GRC.
As for the other candidates, NSP is still finalising these choices. There are a sound 10 possibles, who have been party members for 2 to 8 years.
As other opposition parties have announced plans to also field candidates in some of the areas the NSP is contesting, Mr Ng said the party is ready for this. Asked if NSP would stand down should another opposition party request this, he said: “I do not think so at the moment, because we have been preparing for these areas for the past five years.”
It has been reported that the Progress Singapore Party plans to contest in Sembawang GRC.
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Mr Ng said he will be meeting PSP Assistant Treasurer Hazel Poa on Monday (March 23). If PSP endeavors to ask NSP to stand down from contesting in Sembawang, Mr Ng said the party’s “official stand is that we are contesting in these areas”.
This could mean that the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), the NSP and the PSP will be battling it out in Sembawang GRC.
Meanwhile, in Tampines GRC, the NSP may face the Workers’ Party (WP) and the PAP.
In Pioneer SMC, it may end up in the ring with People’s Voice, along with the candidate from the PAP, and in MacPherson SMC, the WP and PAP again.
Mr Ng said: “There is no reason for us not to contest in the same areas. We did work the ground, visit residents and (interact) with them.”
On March 13, following the release of the electoral boundaries report, Mr Ng had issued the following statement: “The National Solidarity Party (NSP) welcomes the release of the report by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) after a long seven-month’s wait.
“Regardless how the committee has came about to this conclusion of the boundaries and new constituencies, NSP will decide on the areas where it can best serve Singaporeans while working to side by side with our countrymen to tide through the current crisis.” /TISG