PAP Voting Leadership Tomorrow (8 Nov); Experts Wonder If There Would Be Any Changes But DPM Heng Will Most Probably Still Be Our Future PM

The GE2020 might be over but for the People’s Action Party (PAP), they have one more important ballot to go through tomorrow.

The ballot for the party’s highest decision-making party, the central executive committee (CEC).

Special Arrangements

In previous ballots, the more than 2,000 PAP cadres will gather at a single location to cast their votes.

But because of this year’s pandemic, they’re changing it up a bit.

The PAP cadres will gather at their own branches tomorrow morning (8 Nov) to vote.

How It Works

According to The Straits Times, each ballot slip will have seven names highlighted to show the PAP’s choice for core leaders.

Each member can choose up to 12 names to make up the CEC.

Votes from each branch will be counted by PAP’s 93 members and 2 members from each branch.

Votes from across the branches will be added up and the top 12 candidates with the highest votes will get the seats.

If the committee wishes, they can pick six more members to co-opt into the committee.

Education Minister Lawrence Wong and National Development Minister Desmond Lee were previously co-opted into the committee back in 2018.

DPM Heng Will Most Probably Still Remain Our Future PM

It seems that the seven names that are highlighted this year remain the same.

They are:

• Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
• Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat
• Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing
• Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam
• Health Minister Gan Kim Yong
• Sustainability and the Environment Minister Grace Fu
• Social and Family Development Minister Masagos Zulkifli

One thing that political observers can agree on, however, is that it’s likely that Singapore and the PAP won’t see too many changes in this year’s CEC election.

Owing to the current situation, it’s likely that stability and continuity would be the theme that the PAP wants to showcase.

If the top two leaders of the PAP 4G leadership be “undermined”, it would show there is “intense politicking and possibly factionalism” within the party.

And that, a political observer said, will hurt the party “in the near future”.

The other members of the 4G leadership have also rallied behind DPM Heng when his less-than-stellar GE2020 results caused people to wonder if PAP will re-look at their succession plan.

In short, this means that DPM Heng Swee Keat, long the favourite to become the next prime minister of Singapore, will probably still remain the leader of the 4G team.

After all, the current prime minister will take into account who the 4G leadership wants as their leader when deciding on his successor, just as Mr Lee Kuan Yew did with Mr Goh Chok Tong.

People To Watch Out For

Political observers in Singapore, when spoken to by the national newspaper, also highlighted a couple of people to look out for at this year’s ballot for the CEC.

One, in particular, is Mr Lawrence Wong.

He is the face of Singapore’s fight against Covid-19 and helped led the press conference after GE2020.

Some had also said that Mr Lawrence Wong had shown that he could be “prime minister material” during the latest crisis.

This includes Mr Inderjit Singh, a former MP, as well as Sumiko Tan, executive editor of the government-friendly The Straits Times.

Then, there is Mr Desmond Lee, who had led the party’s review on the results of GE2020.

Another person to watch out for is Mr Ng Chee Meng, the labour chief and former political office holder who lost in Sengkang.

Some felt that he will not be elected into the CEC this year since he’s no longer an MP or minister while others felt PAP will rally behind Mr Ng to show the close commitment between the party and NTUC.

(Because hey: you don’t need to be an MP to join PAP. Just ask Ivan Lim.)

Nonetheless, when he lost during GE2020, the CEC of NTUC had rallied around him to show their support.

If all these still sound confusing, you might want to watch this video to the end to understand how a Government and party work (do subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative and entertaining videos!):

Featured Image: The Independent