GE2025: Opposition People’s Alliance for Reform to field 14 candidates in 5 single seats and 2 GRCs

SINGAPORE – The People’s Alliance for Reform (PAR) is planning to field 14 candidates in five single seats and two group representation constituencies for the coming election, its secretary-general Lim Tean said during a walkabout on April 18.

They comprise the single seats of Potong Pasir, Mountbatten, Radin Mas, Queenstown and Yio Chu Kang, as well as Jalan Besar GRC and Tanjong Pagar GRC. 

PAR will not contest Marymount, Kebun Baru and Jalan Kayu SMCs, out of consideration for “the interests of the other parties and their movements”, Mr Lim said.

Speaking to reporters at Pek Kio Market and Food Centre, located at the boundary of Jalan Besar and Tanjong Pagar GRCs, he said: “This is a decision we will not go back on.”

Mr Lim was referring to the constituencies PAR has decided to contest. 

That means Potong Pasir SMC could see a three-way contest, with the ruling PAP and the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) having thrown their hats into the ring. Lawyer Alex Yeo will contest under the PAP banner,

taking the baton from outgoing three-term MP Sitoh Yih Pin.

 

The SPP has not unveiled its candidate for Potong Pasir, but the party has said it plans to field a candidate. Retired SPP chief Chiam See Tong held the constituency for 27 years from 1984, before Mr Sitoh won in 2011. 

“Potong Pasir is one SMC we will 100 per cent contest. You are not going to see us back away,” said Mr Lim, who added that it is among the areas the party has spent the most time in, along with Jalan Besar GRC and Marymount. 

But PAR’s line-ups for Jalan Besar and Tanjong Pagar have not been finalised. Both GRCs could see a straight fight with the PAP, which has won both constituencies by comfortable margins in recent elections.

In 2020, the PAP team in Jalan Besar led by Mrs Josephine Teo, who was then Manpower Minister, secured 65.37 per cent of the vote against the Peoples Voice team in the four-member GRC.

As for Tanjong Pagar GRC, the PAP team helmed by Education Minister Chan Chun Sing won 63.13 per cent of the vote against the Progress Singapore Party in 2020. 

PAR is an alliance of three parties. Other than Peoples Voice, founded by Mr Lim, PAR also includes the Reform Party and the Democratic Progressive Party. A fourth party, the People’s Power Party, withdrew in February over “irreconcilable strategic differences”. 

On April 18, Mr Lim introduced two candidates: Ms Vigneswari V. Ramachandran, 43, an early childhood educator who will most likely be fielded in Jalan Besar GRC, and Mr Mahaboob Baatsha, 57, an oil and gas company director who will be fielded in Queenstown.

This adds to the four candidates PAR has already unveiled. They are Mr Lim, PAR treasurer Mohamad Hamim, central executive committee member Chiu Shin Kong and lecturer Michael Fang, who will be fielded in Yio Chu Kang. 

Ms Vigneswari first contested in 2011, under the Reform Party, when she was 29. She is now doing a master’s degree in inclusive and special education, and lived in Whampoa, in Jalan Besar GRC, for 13 years. She said she would advocate for special needs education.

Mr Mahaboob will be making his electoral debut. He said he has lived in Queenstown for more than 30 years, and that he wants to speak up for rental flat residents there, along with raising cost-of-living issues, which sparked his motivation to run this time.

Mr Lim described him as a stalwart of the Reform Party since 2009.  

With the PAP and WP both issuing their manifestos on April 17, Mr Lim said that PAR’s manifesto will be published soon, before Nomination Day on April 23. 

He said the PAR manifesto will have a maximum of 15 pages, focusing on five areas: cost of living, affordability of public housing, job insecurity, immigration issues and institutional reform.

Asked for his response to the PAP’s manifesto, he said: “The PAP seems to have gone barking mad over the Trump tariffs. Their whole campaign appears to be centred on the Trump tariffs when that is not really the concern of Singaporeans.”

US President Donald Trump had earlier in April imposed a baseline 10 per cent tariff on almost all foreign imports, including on Singapore goods. Singapore’s leaders have warned that such developments could slow global growth, with no exception for the Republic.