SINGAPORE - People's Action Party new face Hany Soh is making the best of a fracture to her left foot, after she tripped while doing house visits on Sunday (July 5).
With her left foot wrapped in a cast, going door to door is out for now. But the 33-year-old lawyer has been visiting coffee shops and merchants in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, where she is running as part of a PAP team led by National Development Minister Lawrence Wong.
Besides canvassing for votes, Ms Soh, who walks around with the help of a crutch, is also checking whether there is proper barrier-free access in the area.
"From the past few days of walkabouts, we wanted to see which are the areas where we can increase the efficiency pertaining to barrier-free access," she told The Straits Times on Tuesday.
"And now that I am in this condition, I think I am the perfect person to be the guinea pig, to be walking around to see which areas we can actually further improve on to make sure the barrier-free access is properly done."
Ms Soh said she tripped along a corridor of a housing block in the Woodgrove ward of the constituency on Sunday. She did not realise how serious the injury was initially, and managed to visit the remaining residents in the block before seeking treatment at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, where she was advised to check for a potential fracture.
She went for an X-ray and was told that she had fractured her foot and would take about four weeks to recover.
Ms Soh said her injury meant she had to delay plans for house visits to two precincts newly absorbed into Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC.
But she said it was not that bad overall as her PAP team mates helped with the house visits. Also, there was less emphasis on such visits in this general election as a result of social distancing measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, she noted.
"When I was helping Dr Teo Ho Pin in the 2015 general election as a community leader, we wanted to do as many house visits as possible but this time round, it is very different," she said, referring to the retired PAP MP for the single seat of Bukit Panjang.
"As much as possible, we wanted to emphasise that there is still a need to adhere to safe distancing measures... so it is not a situation where we wanted to emphasise a lot on house visits."
She added: "Once my injury improves, I want to do more outreach to the residents."
Her PAP team is up against a team from the Singapore Democratic Party led by Mr Benjamin Pwee, who was among those who wished her a speedy recovery.
The strain of campaigning has also affected a member of the SDP team.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday (July 7), Mr Pwee, 52, a business development strategist, said his teammate Bryan Lim, 43, suffered a foot injury while doing house visits.
Mr Lim, an assistant director at a local hospital, told The Straits Times that the issue was a minor foot ligament strain.
"Salonpas (the pain relief patch) did wonders... After applying them, I continued to visit residents who stay around Stagmont Park, Jalan Rasok and Jalan Bumbong," he said.
Both candidates were out and about on Wednesday, the last day of campaigning before the election on Friday. The SDP team, which also includes education consultant Damanhuri Abas, 49, and account manager Khung Wai Yeen, 38, went on walkabouts on Wednesday.
The PAP team for Marsiling-Yew Tee, which comprises Mr Wong, Ms Soh, two-term MP Alex Yam and Minister of State for National Development and Manpower Zaqy Mohamad, will be holding an online rally on its Facebook page on Wednesday evening.
