SINGAPORE - Four opposition parties inked an agreement on Saturday to work together ahead of the next general election, which must be called by November 2025.
National Solidarity Party (NSP), Red Dot United (RDU), Singapore People’s Party (SPP) and Singapore United Party (SUP) formed a “coalition” where they agreed, among other things, to avoid three-cornered contests, form a manifesto and explore the possibility of sharing candidates during elections.
The coalition comes after Peoples Voice (PV), the Reform Party, People’s Power Party and the Democratic Progressive Party said in a joint statement in June that they would be forming a new alliance, called People’s Alliance.
Speaking to the press during the signing, RDU chief Ravi Philemon said: “This non-formal partnership allows the respective parties to keep their individual identities, branding, because we are all working in different constituencies and the needs of the different constituencies may be different.”
SUP secretary-general Andy Zhu said: “Respect is one of the guiding principles we have in mind. From here, we set aside diversity and have decided to come together... Teamwork is important and therefore with our coalition, we can be very productive.”
His SPP counterpart Steve Chia noted that the coalition does not have a dominant party or leader. However, RDU will perform the secretariat role for administrative purposes.
The parties had discussed the idea of the coalition after the 2020 General Election, he said.
“We feel comfortable with the principles, the philosophies, of each party, and we decided to come together to form a kind of agreement, but we are not prepared to have a formal agreement as at now where we register a party,” he added.
“That’s why we came up with this non-formal memorandum of understanding where we want to work together with the objective towards the election and beyond,” said the former Non-Constituency MP (NCMP).
The coalition said it hopes to contest in between eight and 10 constituencies.
On why the parties are announcing the coalition now, Mr Philemon said: “We know that the next GE is nearer than the previous GE (was), so we have to be prepared. I think there can be no better time than now to announce this coalition to say that we are prepared to face the contest.”
In June, PV secretary-general Lim Tean, who will also be secretary-general of People’s Alliance, told The Straits Times that the alliance had submitted its application to the Registry of Societies.
Progress Singapore Party (PSP) secretary-general Leong Mun Wai, who is an NCMP, said in May that PSP will “proactively facilitate” the forming of an alliance among opposition parties.
Asked if other parties such as the Workers’ Party, PSP and Singapore Democratic Party were spoken to about joining the coalition, NSP vice-president Mohd Ridzwan Mohammad said it is still open to dialogue and discussion with other parties.
Mr Philemon said the parties have always been talking to “friends from the opposition fraternity” and were not opposed to working together with other parties.
“For us, this coalition, we want to present to the voters of Singapore a credible choice as to who they can vote for as checks and balances,” he added.
He and Mr Chia said the coalition does not aim to change the Government, but will provide checks and balances and reduce the Government’s two-thirds majority.
The coalition’s manifesto will be released after the election is called and will likely focus on bread-and-butter issues, including inflation, cost of living and wages, said the leaders of the four parties.
Mr Chia said: “We realise that the Government is also addressing a lot of these issues, but how can they address it better to the desires of Singaporeans is something that we want to discuss and analyse in greater detail and... put it up at the proper time during the next coming election.”
