GE2025: New PAP faces could be formally introduced soon

SINGAPORE – With a general election coming, the ruling party has begun introducing potential candidates to the public. 

New faces have been out in force with sitting PAP MPs, meeting residents and speaking to the media at walkabouts and community events across the island.

This will be followed by a formal introduction of the new candidates, which could be as soon as this week, observers said.

They added that the pace is likely to pick up in the first week of April. The 2025 format looks to be a mix of past approaches.

On March 29, in what was the most definitive introduction so far, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung announced moving company chief operating officer Gabriel Lam and battery company director Ng Shi Xuan as

new faces likely to stand in his Sembawang GRC in the coming polls.

More are likely to follow.

Potential candidates began surfacing as early as 2024, but before the release of the new electoral boundaries, many were not formally introduced to the public and the media. 

Political observers noted that the new faces have been spending more time on the ground quietly before being introduced to the public. They were spotted shadowing MPs at community events, where they identified themselves as grassroots volunteers or party activists.

Independent political observer Felix Tan said it has been a slow and steady process this time.

He said: “Introducing these new faces (this way) will allow the PAP to suss out the ground and gauge the support that these individuals will have in these areas.”

Institute of Policy Studies Social Lab research fellow Teo Kay Key said the party could be putting new faces on the ground earlier in response to feedback from previous elections about “parachuting” candidates in at the last minute.

But since the electoral boundaries were made public, informal introductions seem to have ceased, and new faces have been pushed to the fore as part of potential slates.

New face Hazlina Abdul Halim, who had previously been spotted shadowing MacPherson MP Tin Pei Ling, was

formally introduced to residents and reporters

at a Marine Parade GRC walkabout on March 22. 

Wearing the party badge, her appearance alongside the constituency’s anchor minister Tan See Leng has fuelled speculation that she could be part of the slate for the renamed Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, although sitting MPs were coy about confirming her candidacy. 

As Polling Day draws closer, the party is expected to move into the next phase and formally introduce its candidates to the nation.

Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan said that the pace is likely to pick up this week, with attempts to profile prospective candidates.

The recent string of high-profile public servant resignations – six known so far – also hints at this, as they usually quit close to the hustings. Their last days at work all fall between the end of March and this week. 

In 2020, the PAP introduced eight to nine candidates a day over three consecutive days amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which necessitated online introductions.

This strategy, with introductions centralised at the party headquarters and managed by a senior member of its executive committee, has been employed by the PAP in past elections. 

It was a different approach in 2015.

Wanting to appear up front with residents about their options and in response to feedback that the previous flurry of announcements was too overwhelming, each constituency announced its own slate and retiring MPs.

This happened over several weeks in August, ahead of Polling Day on Sept 11.

It is unclear which style the party will adopt in 2025, but based on the introductions in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC and Sembawang GRC at the weekend, it seems the PAP could be putting forth its new faces in the individual constituencies without confirming its final line-up. 

However, potential candidates being introduced in a certain constituency does not guarantee they will contest in that area, Associate Professor Eugene Tan noted.

He added that everything about the PAP’s deployments will be fluid right up to Nomination Day.

He said: “Being discreet about the actual deployments of the first-time candidates is to be expected. It is a strategic decision, but not as critical as where the incumbent MPs, especially the GRC anchors, will be deployed.”