GE2025: WP candidate Andre Low plans to take ‘hands-on’ approach to Parliament if elected

SINGAPORE - Growing up around his father, who was a design and technology teacher, meant that Mr Andre Low was taught to be “hands-on” from a young age.

The pair bonded through doing things such as fixing light bulbs and splicing wires to extend power cords.

When the 33-year-old and his wife moved into their resale flat in Punggol three years ago, Mr Low did most of the home renovations himself, including the installation of ceiling fans and some of the plumbing.

That mentality has carried over to Mr Low’s activities in the opposition WP, too, with the self-taught coder being responsible for refreshing the party’s website into its present form.

The party

unveiled Mr Low on April 18 as a candidate

, although it did not disclose where he will contest.

Mr Low hopes to take this same hands-on approach into Parliament if he is elected, he told The Straits Times on April 18 at the void deck of a Housing Board block in Rivervale, where he once served as an aide to incumbent Sengkang MP Louis Chua.

It is Mr Low’s hope that Singapore would become a more open society.

“Ironically, back in the 90s and 80s, which we think about as a time when debate was much more circumscribed, it felt like there was more room to talk about issues. Singapore society has really been curtailed, and chopped off at the edges,” said the disputes lawyer turned staff product manager at a global financial technology firm.

Mr Low’s journey into politics was accidental.

His parents are opposition supporters, and his political leanings are aligned with theirs.

Yet his intention when he started volunteering with WP in 2020, before the general election that year, was just “to be an additional pair of hands” and help in whatever way he could.

Initially, he distributed fliers to the public and knocked on doors during walkabouts, until he mentioned his legal background to two party members and became Mr Chua’s secretarial assistant.

Mr Low, who is married with a baby on the way, not only helped out at Mr Chua’s Meet-the-People Sessions as a case writer, but found himself assigned another role – to oversee operations and logistics in Mr Chua’s Rivervale division.

Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, he had to work out a digital system so that remote Meet-the-People Sessions could be held.

“It really was not what I signed up for, in a way, but (it was) a pleasant surprise,” he said.

Mr Low, who is part of WP’s media team and has been walking the ground in Tampines, said party leaders approached him roughly two years ago about potentially being fielded as a candidate in the upcoming election, which he took time to ponder.

With his first child due in August, he said it was a choice he still grappled with as recently as two months ago.

“There’s still that nagging doubt at the back of your head, like, did we make the right decision?” he said.

He added that he agreed to be a candidate because of the work that previous generations of WP members had done.

Mr Low said past opposition figures such as Mr Low Thia Khiang, Mr Chiam See Tong and the late J.B. Jeyaretnam stepped forward when it was unthinkable to do so.

“Nowadays, it really is much easier to make that decision.”

As a millennial, Mr Low said he sees himself advocating policies that matter to younger Singaporeans, such as housing.

“We have some politicians who are in their late 30s, but people around my age, or who have recently gone through that (buying their first home), are a relatively rare breed. I can bring that perspective to Parliament, speaking for young millennials and some of the older Gen Zs.”

As many young Singaporeans are

heading to the polls on May 3

for the first time, Mr Low said he hopes to bridge the gap between the two generational groups and understand the issues that resonate with them.

Describing Gen Zs as being passionate about issues close to their heart, he brought up how the young climate activists he knows have an existential perspective on climate change.

He said it is easy to dismiss the younger generation as overthinking or overblowing matters that they care about.

“But behind their youthful fervour, there is a real issue that they are championing, and it would be remiss of us not to give them that time of day,” Mr Low added.

Another cause that he would like to champion is more open-ended education in Singapore’s schools.

With this, he believes young people will develop a mindset of exploration.

Mr Low said young people should be encouraged to take chances while still in school, citing how his circumstances allowed him to take risks with his career instead of being defined by his course of study.

He went from law to technology, then to consulting and back to tech. 

Even though Mr Low has been going around Tampines with the WP team, the party has been coy about where its candidates will be fielded.

That said, Mr Low has been spotted in Tampines on several WP social media posts. The party has been engaging residents there in earnest since the start of 2024, he said.

On WP’s presence in Tampines, Mr Low said it felt as if Tampines residents want the opposition party to be there.

Knocking on people’s doors, he added, has inevitably led to questions about whether WP would run in the constituency. Some residents have even said “you must come” and “don’t disappoint us this time”, he said.

WP has been walking the ground there since at least 2016, sparking speculation that it could contest Tampines GRC in the 2020 election.

Eventually, the party fielded its candidates elsewhere, with the National Solidarity Party facing off against the ruling PAP, which prevailed with 66.41 per cent of the vote.

Assuming WP decides to contest there, Mr Low thinks it will make a “very interesting fight”.

“It is no secret we have been walking the ground, and the ground is quite sweet. So I’m looking forward to it,” he said.