SINGAPORE - The work of a Member of Parliament goes beyond managing an estate and should centre around lawmaking, said National Solidarity Party acting secretary-general Hazel Poa on Sunday (Aug 16) at a walkabout in Yishun.

"We would like to emphasise the point that electing MPs should be more than just estate management. After all it is Member of Parliament, their primary role should be their contributions in parliament to enact laws that affect the lives of every Singaporean."

Ms Poa was responding to Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean's criticism of the Workers' Party (WP) over financial lapses at its town council.

Asked for comments by reporters, she added that should her party be elected into Parliament, it will hire its own team to manage town councils, instead of subcontracting the work to a managing agent.

The NSP was greeting residents at Yishun Avenue 11 in Sembawang GRC, where it intends to field a team in the coming general election.

Yesterday, Ms Poa declined to say who would be in the team, though she introduced businessman Spencer Ng, 36, and real estate agent Eugene Yeo, 40, as potential candidates to residents.

She said her party would only be revealing its candidates in the last week of August, though they are already on the ground.

Asked about the People's Action Party team for Sembawang, Ms Poa said she was glad that Mr Ong Ye Kung would be making a comeback "despite the setback that he received in the last election".

But she added: "It would have been better if he had gone back to Aljunied... He contested there in the previous round, quite a close contest. They do still enjoy, I think, the support of 45 per cent of the voters there. So if you go back to Aljunied, it would have better shown his commitment to serve the residents. "

In the 2011 General Election, Mr Ong was part of the PAP's Aljunied GRC team, which polled 45.28 per cent of valid votes and lost to the WP.

On why her own party would not be going back to Marine Parade GRC, where it polled over 40 per cent of valid votes in the last election, Ms Poa said it was due to boundary changes, adding that her party had no choice but to "react to it and make our own plans".

The NSP had backed out of contesting Marine Parade GRC, which will absorb Joo Chiat, to avoid a three-cornered fight there with the WP and PAP.