Singapore GE2020: Masks, party secrets and surprises

No big crowds this time, but nomination centre in the east sees some campaign colour and a surprise unveiling

In the first pandemic polls for Singapore, candidates addressed the media yesterday without the usual crowd of supporters at the nomination centres, including this one at Chongfu School. ST PHOTOS: WANG HUI FEN, CHONG JUN LIANG
Mr Victor Ronnie Lai, who was hoping to stand as an independent candidate in Pioneer SMC, arriving at Jurong Pioneer Junior College yesterday. The retired financial accountant could not get enough assenters to enter the centre. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
National Development Minister Lawrence Wong (left) of the PAP and Singapore Democratic Party candidate Benjamin Pwee in Yew Tee yesterday. They have known each other since Mr Pwee‘s time in the civil service. ST PHOTO: TOH TING WEI
Peoples Voice candidate Sivakumaran Chellappa (centre), who is contesting in Mountbatten SMC, speaking at the Kong Hwa School nomination centre yesterday. He is up against incumbent MP Lim Biow Chuan of the PAP. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
Progress Singapore Party chief Tan Cheng Bock (far right), followed by members of his team in West Coast GRC – Mr Leong
Mun Wai, Ms Hazel Poa, Mr Nadarajah Loganathan and Mr Jeffrey Khoo – at Nan Hua High School.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
Singapore People’s Party campaign posters put up in Toa Payoh Lorong 2. The party is contesting in Bishan-Toa Payoh
GRC and Potong Pasir SMC.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
A Workers’ Party campaign poster being put up in Serangoon Gardens estate in Aljunied GRC yesterday. The GRC
was the site of a historic opposition victory by the WP in 2011, and is set to be the scene of another fierce battle.
ST PHOTOS: WANG HUI FEN, CHONG JUN LIANG
A PAP campaign lorry in Holland Close yesterday, bearing the images of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and the team for Tanjong Pagar GRC (poster on the right, clockwise from top left): Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah, Mr Eric Chua, Ms Joan Pereira and Mr Alvin Tan. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing, seen here with fellow Tanjong Pagar GRC incumbent MP Indranee Rajah (left), highlighting an error in the Progress Singapore Party’s nomination papers at Bendemeer Primary School. However, the form was accepted as the PAP team decided not to raise any objections. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Ms Gan Siow Huang, the People’s Action Party candidate for Marymount SMC, being scanned as part of a security check after arriving at the Deyi Secondary School nomination centre. The PAP new face, who is a former Republic of Singapore Air Force brigadier-general, is running against Progress Singapore Party candidate Ang Yong Guan, a psychiatrist. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Masked candidates, party secrets and even surprises played out at the St Anthony's Canossian Primary School nomination centre, nestled in the leafy edge of the supersized Bedok housing estate.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat might be a familiar face, but few were expecting him here. His arrival set up an interesting contest for the East Coast GRC.

To keep up the surprise, he had arrived separately from his GRC comrades - Dr Maliki Osman, Ms Jessica Tan, Ms Cheryl Chan and new face Tan Kiat How.

Though there had been some whispers recently that the People's Action Party (PAP) anchor in the group representation constituency might turn out to be Mr Heng, this was confirmed only on Nomination Day yesterday as the clock ticked faster towards the July 10 election.

He had moved over from neighbouring Tampines GRC to lead his team in a contest against the Workers' Party (WP) slate of Mr Dylan Ng, Mr Kenneth Foo, Mr Terence Tan, Mr Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim and Ms Nicole Seah.

Aptly, the primary school, painted in a palette of white and blue, seemed like a silent visual metaphor of the battle royale ahead in the GRC between the all-white-clad PAP and the WP in its signature baby blue.

But the zest of previous Nomination Days was largely absent. In the first pandemic polls for Singapore, the entourages of the candidates were smaller and safely distanced as they filed into the school on foot or arrived by car and coach.

Missing were the party umbrellas and paraphernalia, the call-and-response of politicians and the party faithful as the candidates spoke amid ever louder cheers.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused total disruption, and the rules of Nomination Day had been adjusted for crowd-free filing of papers between 11am and noon.

The school was among nine nomination centres islandwide. Nomination papers were also filed here by candidates eyeing Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, the Punggol West single seat and Sengkang GRC.

In post-nomination speeches, each slate of candidates appeared in a row. It was mask off, short speech, mask on for each speaker. After each group had made their points, the microphone was duly disinfected for the next party.

Mr Heng alluded to the "profound uncertainty" triggered by the pandemic, saying: "The People's Action Party has a plan to enable us to overcome this crisis, has a plan to emerge stronger from this."

When it was the turn of the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC team, led by Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, they appeared in matching white masks accented with blue and red stripes. In unison, they clasped their hands in a gesture that has replaced the pre-pandemic handshake.

Next came the opposition's Ms Seah, who burst onto the scene in 2011 as a National Solidarity Party candidate before her hiatus in the 2015 polls. She said with ardour: "We will always offer all of you a vote of fairness and balance."

In lighter moments, people have observed that her Chinese name, Xue Ling, sounds the same as the PAP's Punggol West candidate Sun Xueling.

Incidentally, Ms Sun's 41st birthday will fall on Polling Day. Also celebrating an electoral - and phase two - birthday was the WP's East Coast GRC candidate, Mr Tan, who turned 49 on Nomination Day yesterday.

BATTLEGROUND IN THE EAST

Apart from the "unveiling" of Mr Heng, also significant were the "missing" faces yesterday morning.

An era for East Coast GRC had ended with the retirement from politics of former anchor minister Lim Swee Say and three-term MP Lee Yi Shyan.

Mr Heng revealed in a Facebook post later yesterday that he had thought long and hard about the question: "Should I move to East Coast?" He decided that the five-man GRC could not afford a "succession gap" in these uncertain times.

Earlier, looking across at the school, retiree Ding Heng Chuan, 69, paused after his morning run. A resident of 30-plus years in Bedok, he reflected on the "toned-down" Nomination Day and campaigning season.

While his Fengshan constituency has returned to the East Coast GRC fold this time, and the pandemic means he has no opposition rallies to head to, he revels in his vista of "the four corners of Singapore" from atop his point block. The former navy man can spy planes landing at the airport and see Indonesia on the horizon.

While the pandemic has changed the nature of the election, and his ward has shape-shifted, elements of his world are unchanged in this serene zone of the east that is also a battleground for the hearts of Singaporeans.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 01, 2020, with the headline Masks, party secrets and surprises. Subscribe