SDP: “Height of irresponsibility” to hold polls in midst of Covid-19 crisis

Singapore – The People’s Action Party cannot “place its own political interest over the health and safety of the Singaporean people” by holding a General Election during the current Covid-19 pandemic, according to the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

Referring to a Facebook post on Saturday (March 14) by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong following the release of the report of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, the SDP said: “PM Lee Hsien Loong says we either hold the GE later under ‘more normal circumstances’ but that there’s no certainty of that or do it early to get a fresh mandate for the government”.

The party said the Covid-19 crisis is “at its most critical at the moment with the pandemic just being declared” and that “when the international community comes to grips with the situation and resources globally are mobilised, things will start  to improve”.

It added that the Government going ahead with the GE at a time when public safety is at its most vulnerable would be “the height of irresponsibility”.

“The mandate the Government thinks it secures in a GE held at a time of a health crisis when people are naturally working together will be ‘hollow and meaningless’. To claim endorsement of an agenda based on such opportunistic politicking will further divide the people rather than unite us,” it noted.

The SDP proposed that the GE be called only when there are clear signs that the pandemic “has clearly turned around and Singaporeans are no longer under serious threat”.

It added: “PM Lee will be taking a reckless gamble with the health and well-being of the people if he calls for elections in the near future. We urge him to think carefully.”

Those who responded to the SDP post agreed that elections should not be held during the Covid-19 crisis.

There were also those who were sceptical that the elections would be postponed.