PAP Has Enough Depth On Team Even If It Loses Some Ministers, Says Pritam

But WP Will Have Problems With Leadership Renewal If Candidates Aren't Elected, He Adds

- Nadine Chua and Wong Pei Ting

The PAP has enough depth of talent on its bench to form a ministerial team even if it loses some ministers this election, WP chief Pritam Singh said on May 1, adding it is the WP that will run into problems with leadership renewal if its candidates are not elected.

Responding to a football analogy used by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Mr Singh said no football team would go into a game with only its starting 11 players, and that reserves were also integral parts of a football team.

PM Wong had said in his May Day Rally speech that if three or four members of the starting 11 are unable to play, the team will have backups and reserves, but cannot function at the same level.

With Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong anchoring the PAP team in Punggol GRC against a WP team helmed by lawyer Harpreet Singh, the WP has sought to assure voters that Singapore would be okay even if DPM Gan was not elected.

Meanwhile, the PAP has said that losing key ministers like DPM Gan would weaken the Government, and by extension, Singapore's position in an increasingly volatile world, especially since DPM Gan is head of a task force set up to help the country navigate the uncertainties brought by US tariffs.

Speaking at an interview in Punggol, Mr Pritam Singh said every team has substitutes who can be deployed when strategies change and new formations are needed.

To this end, the PAP is like a football team with a bench of 10 reserves, while other parties like the WP are more like football teams with only two reserves, he said.