SDP to field Chee Soon Juan in new Sembawang West SMC

Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan will contest the newly carved out Sembawang West SMC in the 2025 General Election, while party chairman Paul Tambyah will once again run in Bukit Panjang SMC.

- Anjali Raguraman

Flanked by party members and volunteers at the atrium of Woodlands Mart, Dr Chee announced his candidacy on March 23. He had distributed fliers to residents in nearby blocks earlier in the day, declaring his intent.

Running in Sembawang West SMC is part of the party's larger "northern strategy" that focuses on constituencies in the northern part of Singapore, said Dr Chee.

"We've been campaigning here since the 2000s... so in a way it's back to old stomping grounds," he said of his decision to run in the new single seat, which was carved out of Sembawang GRC by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee.

Professor Tambyah recalled how Sembawang gave him his "first taste of electoral politics back in 2011", when he spoke at an SDP rally there. "We have been in Sembawang for a long time, but we had to leave in 2015 when Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC was hived out from Sembawang," he said.