PAP UNVEILS SEMBAWANG GRC TEAM

The People’s Action Party announced today that Sembawang Group Representative Constituency (GRC) will be headed by Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan, who will be running with old team mates Dr Lim Wee Kiak, Mr Vikram Nair, former election hopeful Mr Ong Ye Kung – a director of group strategy at Keppel Corporation who is making his second attempt to enter Parliament – and 36 year-old corporate lawyer and PAP newcomer Amrin Amin.

Mr Ong was in the high-profile PAP Aljunied GRC team that was defeated by the Workers’ Party in 2011. The former top civil servant had been touted as being of ministerial calibre by various Cabinet ministers.

Mr Amrin is corporate lawyer at Joseph Tan Jude Benny LLP. He was active in grassroots work since 2004 and was Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam’s legislative assistant from 2004 to 2006.

That amounts to three changes to the team that contested in 2011 due to retirements and boundary changes.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary Hawazi Daipi and Ms Ellen Lee are both retiring from politics. Mr Hawazi and first-term MP Ong Teng Koon also had their wards moved to the new Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC in the latest electoral boundary changes. At the same time, Dr Lim’s Canberra ward – which used to be in Nee Soon GRC – has now been absorbed into Sembawang GRC.

Though Mr Hawazi’s departure from politics had been announced earlier, Ms Lee’s retirement was confirmed only on Friday.