SDP Rebuts PAP's Claim That Chee Soon Juan Abandoned Bukit Batok

Ruling party members have also switched constituencies, note opposition candidates

- Andrew Wong

Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan spent years walking the ground in Bukit Batok, only to have the single-member constituency removed in the latest review of the electoral boundaries, his party's candidates said on April 25.

At SDP's second election rally, candidates banded together to defend Dr Chee, after Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said at a PAP rally the day before that Dr Chee had "abandoned Bukit Batok to come to Sembawang West".

The Bukit Batok single seat was absorbed into the new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC with the release of the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee report on March 11, and Dr Chee announced later that month his intention to contest the Sembawang West SMC in this election.

The veteran opposition politician previously contested and lost in the now-defunct ward twice, the latest in GE2020 in which he garnered 45.2 per cent of the vote against PAP's Mr Murali Pillai, who notched 54.8 per cent.

"You simply erase the hard work of Dr Chee for the last 10 years, winning the hearts and minds of Bukit Batok residents by resorting to tactics of a playground bully," said SDP's Sembawang GRC candidate Damanhuri Abas at Beacon Primary School in Bukit Panjang.

"Sadly, we are still dealing with a reality that allows the PAP to maintain an uneven political playing field where they can move the goal post," he added.