Four-way fight in Tampines GRC; PAP, WP face off in Tampines Changkat

WP, NSP, PPP will duke it out in Tampines GRC in bid to unseat incumbent PAP team

- Aqil Hamzah

Three opposition parties will duke it out in the quest to win Tampines GRC and unseat the incumbent PAP team led by Social and Family Development Minister Masagos Zulkifli.

After successfully submitting their nomination papers at Poi Ching School in Tampines Street 71, the WP, National Solidarity Party (NSP) and People's Power Party (PPP) will go up against the PAP when Singaporeans go to the polls on May 3.

The ruling party's team is led by Mr Masagos, 62, who was first elected to Parliament in 2006.

His team includes two other incumbents: Dr Koh Poh Koon, 53, Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Sustainability and the Environment; and Mr Baey Yam Keng, 54, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Sustainability and the Environment.

Rounding out the PAP team are two political newcomers: former chief of army David Neo, 47, and Dr Charlene Chen, 43, an assistant professor of marketing at Nanyang Technological University.

The Workers' Party, which had kept coy about where its candidates would contest, confirmed that its five-member team comprises party vice-chair Faisal Manap, 49; Mr Jimmy Tan, 53, co-founder of industrial equipment supply firm Immanuel Engineering; Institute of Mental Health senior principal clinical psychologist Ong Lue Ping, 48; former diplomat Eileen Chong, 32; and Mr Michael Thng, 37, co-founder of technology start-up Showdrop.

Mr Faisal, who entered Parliament in 2011 and was an MP for Aljunied GRC, joined the Tampines GRC slate in a last-minute switch on Nomination Day.

Four of the WP's five team members were only recently unveiled to the public in a series of press briefings over the previous weekend.