PAP introduces first slate of four new candidates for General Election

THE People's Action Party (PAP) on Wednesday introduced its first slate of four new candidates:

- Edward Chia, co-founder and managing director of Timbre Group. Mr Chia said he believes all businesses should exist for the better good of society and offer services that touch lives positively. He is also interested in engaging youths.

- Desmond Tan Kok Ming, a former civil servant. Mr Tan spent 28 years in the Singapore Armed Forces, where he learnt about leadership, discipline, and perseverance.

- Ivan Lim, general manager for specialised vessels at Keppel Offshore & Marine. Mr Lim is an active volunteer at Henderson-Dawson constituency and is concerned about the elderly and disadvantaged children, especially those with special needs.

- Nadia Ahmad Samdin, an associate director at TSMP Law Corporation. Ms Nadia has been serving the community through various organisations over the past 15 years. She has a soft spot for vulnerable elderly and young women in difficult circumstances.

PAP's first assistant secretary-general Heng Swee Keat introduced the candidates. In his introduction, he said: "We have many critical decisions to be made. The strategy and the actions that we take in the coming months will profoundly shape our future. This is why PM has called for this election early. We need to build the adaptive capacity of our society to overcome this crisis and to emerge stronger."

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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday that he has decided to call the general election now, while the Covid-19 situation is relatively stable, to give the new government a fresh five-year mandate.

He added that the election will be "like no other" that Singapore has experienced, because of both the special arrangements required to deal with Covid-19, and the gravity of the situation and the issues at stake.

A total of 26 new candidates will be introduced in a series of sessions over three days, to be led by either PAP's vice-chairman Masagos Zulkifli, Mr Heng, second assistant secretary-general Chan Chun Sing, or organising secretary Grace Fu, said the PAP in a press statement.

The party added that the new candidates have a median age of 43, with the youngest at 30 years old and the oldest at 56 years old. The PAP also said it took "significant" effort to bring in more women candidates, with 10 in the line-up this year.

For more of our Singapore GE2020 coverage, go to bt.sg/ge2020