SDP and JTC trade words over campaign-launch venue cancellation

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and JTC Corporation have posted on Facebook their versions of events which led to the last-minute cancellation of the venue booking for the political party's election campaign launch on Saturday.

The event was to have been held at a building in Eunos where JTC is the landlord.

In the latest salvo yesterday, SDP posted what it said was the text of an e-mail sent on Friday from a representative of KCC Ventures, which manages the SLV Hub events space.

The e-mail purportedly said that all events on Saturday had to be cancelled due to a "last-minute unforeseen JTC inspection", and that a full refund would be issued.

SDP also claimed in the social media post that a manager from SLV Hub later said over the phone that the building management had insisted events that are political in nature are not allowed on its premises.

As a result of the cancellation, SDP said, it had to scramble before it held the event at Mandarin Orchard Hotel.

In its Facebook post on Saturday, JTC said it had "no prior knowledge" of the event, and that it had informed the venue owner on Feb 8 of an inspection to take place on Feb 28, not Feb 23.

The planned inspection is part of ongoing investigations into unauthorised subletting activities, JTC said.

"It is totally irresponsible to conflate this issue with the ongoing investigations, and allege political motives on the part of JTC," it said.

SDP said if JTC wants to take issue with the matter, it should do so with KCC Ventures.

"While at it, JTC should also clarify whether it has any policy barring political events such as the one we held yesterday from its premises," the SDP wrote in its Facebook post.

When contacted yesterday, JTC referred to its earlier statement.

SLV Hub did not respond to queries.

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 25, 2019, with the headline SDP and JTC trade words over campaign-launch venue cancellation. Subscribe