Politics a family affair for PSP chief Hazel Poa

When Progress Singapore Party (PSP) chief Hazel Poa joined politics in 2009, her husband Tony Tan was in "no position" to stop her, she said.

- Tham Yuen-C

After all, he was the one who had first taken the plunge.

Ms Poa had always felt that Singapore needed a stronger opposition to give voters alternatives to the ruling People's Action Party, she said.

Her husband's experience with the Reform Party made her realise that opposition parties were rather small and needed a lot of help.

"That's when I decided that, yes, I'm also going to step in," she told The Straits Times.

The couple, both former government scholarship holders and public servants, first joined the Reform Party, but resigned in 2011 due to disagreements with its leaders.

They then joined the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and were fielded as candidates in Chua Chu Kang GRC in the election that year.

Asked about running for Parliament alongside Mr Tan, Ms Poa said: "We've always kind of done a lot of things together... It's just a very natural extension of what we have been doing all along."