Opposition Progress Singapore Party elects new leadership, six new faces in top decision-making body
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The newly elected members of the Progress Singapore Party’s central executive committee: (front row, from left) Ms Wendy Low, Mr Leong Mun Wai, Dr Tan Cheng Bock, Ms Hazel Poa and Mr A’bas Kasmani; (back row, from left) Mr S. Nallakaruppan, Mr Jonathan Tee, Mr Joseph Wong, Mr Phang Yew Huat, Mr Soh Zheng Long, Mr Anthony Neo and Mr Samuel Lim.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
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SINGAPORE – The opposition Progress Singapore Party (PSP) voted six new names into its highest decision-making body on March 20, in a substantial refresh of its leadership slate.
The election was hotly contested, with 24 candidates vying for 12 elected seats on the central executive committee (CEC).
Returning to the CEC are Non-Constituency MPs Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa, as well as party chairman Tan Cheng Bock, Mr A’bas Kasmani, Ms Wendy Low and Mr Phang Yew Huat.
Six new names were elected. They are: Mr Samuel Lim, 29; Mr Anthony Neo, 57; Mr S. Nallakaruppan, 60; Mr Soh Zheng Long, 36; Mr Jonathan Tee, 50; and Mr Joseph Wong, 68.
Eight members of the previous CEC were not re-elected, including several who were candidates in the last election. They include Dr Ang Yong Guan, Mr Harish Pillay, Mr Jeffrey Khoo, Mr Nadarajah Loganathan and Mr Lim Cher Hong.
Of these, all except Dr Ang had sought re-election.
The new CEC was voted in by the 90 cadres present, comprising the party’s inner circle. It will later co-opt two more cadres to form a 14-member body, and then decide who will take up party leadership positions within it. This includes the party’s leader, its secretary-general.
The new CEC will serve for two years until March 2027.
Mr Leong, who was spotted leaving the party headquarters at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre after the CEC election, told reporters that the party would announce the leadership positions, including its new secretary-general, at a later date. He added that the PSP remained “always ready” for the general election.
Observers have said that the only two serious candidates for the post are its NCMPs, Ms Poa and Mr Leong. Ms Poa was secretary-general until this election.
If Mr Leong takes back the reins, it will be the fifth time the party has changed its leader since its founding in 2019.
He had stepped down as secretary-general in February 2024,
He is expected by some in the party to make a bid to retake the post from Ms Poa.
Ms Poa is the PSP’s fourth secretary-general, and was the party vice-chairman prior to that.
Mr Leong, who currently does not hold any post on the CEC, first became secretary-general in April 2023. Mr Francis Yuen vacated the position the month before,
The PSP’s founder and current chairman, Dr Tan, was its first secretary-general.
Together with Dr Tan, Mr Leong and Ms Poa were on the PSP’s West Coast GRC slate that lost to a PAP team led by former transport minister S. Iswaran in the 2020 General Election.
It was the narrowest loss that year – which allowed the party to send Mr Leong and Ms Poa into Parliament as NCMPs.
The PSP is expected to contest several constituencies in the upcoming general election, including the newly redrawn West Coast-Jurong West GRC,
Its slates in these wards have not been confirmed.
Ng Wei Kai is a journalist at The Straits Times, where he covers politics. He writes
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