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SINGAPORE: In an Instagram post on April 24, Workers’ Party (WP) chair Sylvia Lim noted that “every GE is a battle for hearts and minds”. However, in Punggol GRC, there appears to be a battle of the eyes as well, with some Singaporeans pitting an attractive candidate from one party against another.
By this, of course, we’re referring to what some Singaporeans have reduced to as a showdown of sorts between the People’s Action Party (PAP)’s Sun Xueling and Alexis Dang, who is widely considered to be one of the breakout stars of the Workers’ Party for this year’s election.
Both women are graduates of the National University of Singapore and have worked in the finance sector.
Prior to entering politics in 2015, Ms Sun, 45, had been with Deutsche Bank as a Director and later Macquarie Securities as a Senior Vice President. After the PAP won in Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC in 2015, Ms Sun began representing the Punggol West ward in Parliament. She contested again in GE 2020 when the ward became Punggol West SMC, and won 60.98 per cent of the vote against the WP’s Tan Chen Chen. She has also served as a Minister of State and a Senior Parliamentary Secretary. Ms Sun is married and has two children.
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Meanwhile, ever since she was introduced by the WP as a candidate on April 18, the 39-year-old Ms Dang, who is single, has received much attention online. The candidate has a background in finance but currently works in the tech sector, where she leads a team of Business Development professionals. She has been with the WP for the past five years; has been part of house visits, planning and hosting party events; and has supported the party with translation work for newsletters and parliamentary speeches for the WP MPs.
After she spoke in Mandarin during her candidate introduction, netizens were impressed by her command of the language, with some even saying it would be interesting to hear a debate in Mandarin in Parliament.
The Battle at Punggol
After Punggol West was absorbed into Punggol GRC after only one term as a Single Member Constituency, Ms Sun was announced as part of the PAP team, which is anchored by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary and Pasir Ris–Punggol MP Yeo Wan Ling complete the ruling party’s slate.
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It came as a surprise to many that the Deputy Prime Minister would contest at Punggol GRC, since he had represented Chua Chu Kang in Parliament since 2006, and it was believed he would do so again this year. However, the announcement that Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, who had been the anchor minister at Pasir Ris Punggol GRC since 2001, would not seek reelection changed matters, and the ruling party had to be strategic.
The WP team, though composed of all new faces, is nothing to sneeze at. It is led by a candidate widely perceived to be the original star catch of this election year, Senior Counsel Harpreet Singh Nehal, who caused a lot of buzz online when he began to be seen in the WP’s grassroots activities in August 2023. Completing the WP slate are Alia Mattar, a former legal counsel with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Jackson Au, who works in strategic communications, and who did not fail to impress during the WP’s first rally in Sengkang on Thursday night (April 24). /TISG
Read also: ‘Chio pro max,’ WP Punggol candidate Alexis Dang makes waves online
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