Nomination Day is over and we now know who’s contesting in this year’s General Election.
You may have been too busy googling Ivan Lim to notice, but PAP certainly kept its cards close to its chest until the last minute.
It only introduced its newcomers a week before nomination day.
Why?
Well, like many other questions in 2020, the answer to this one is Covid-19.
PM Lee Explains Why PAP Announced Candidate Line-Up So Late Compared to Previous Elections
The coronavirus has claimed lives and jobs, but it can also ruin your political campaign.
In GE2015, PAP announced its full line-up of candidates and the areas in which they’d be contesting before Nomination Day.
At the time, PAP said it unveiled its slate of candidates early because they wanted to be upfront with voters and encourage a “better type of politics”.
That wasn’t the case this year, however.
PM Lee explained that the PAP government has “been busy with Covid-19” in the last few months, reported TODAYonline.
“If we had gone ahead and announced candidates formally in the middle of Covid-19 while we were doing a circuit breaker… people will misunderstand and will accuse us of politicking away and not keeping our eyes on the ball.”
Yes, it was always going to be a lose-lose situation.
Announce candidates early and people would say, “Why are you thinking about the election when Covid-19 is ravaging our country?”.
Announce them late and people will say “Why did you reveal your candidates so late? What tricks do you have up your sleeve?”.
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This is why the party also delayed introducing its 27 new faces to the public until last week.
PAP would have liked to deploy and make known its fresh candidates earlier, PM Lee added.
Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat echoed PM Lee’s sentiments, saying that the government’s had been focused on combating the healthcare and economic threat posed by Covid-19 in the last few months.
“I will say that the situation on Covid-19 and the situation on the economy are likely to get worse globally”, DPM Heng warned.
He urged the country not to be complacent.
“Overnight Internet Storms”
In his virtual press conference, PM Lee also said that the Internet and social media have become “a much bigger factor” this election because the coronavirus is keeping everyone in their homes.
One “downside” of this, he said, is that people can mobilise “overnight Internet storms”.
Unless there’s another candidate who doesn’t smile in lifts, PM Lee is probably talking about Ivan Lim.
For those who don’t know, Ivan Lim was one of the first new candidates unveiled by PAP a week ago.
Lim is the general manager at Keppel Offshore and Marine.
Shortly after his introduction, Lim withdrew his candidacy after some netizens accused him of elitist behaviour and of being arrogant as a national service commander, among other things, including not smiling at his neighbour in lifts.
Lim said the allegations were baseless and did not apologise.
But PM Lee feels that this quick rush to judgement is a “dangerous thing” during an election.
“It happens faster than people are able to digest and make sense of information and facts, and in an election that’s a dangerous thing,” he said.
Then again, voters need to know about the kind of candidate they’re electing into office, right?
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