GE2025: PSP to field A-team in West Coast-Jurong West GRC, setting up rematch with PAP (2025)

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SINGAPORE - The opposition PSP will field its three top leaders in the newly formed West Coast-Jurong West GRC for the upcoming general election.

It is the second time that PSP chairman Tan Cheng Bock, 84, party chief Leong Mun Wai, 65, and vice-chair Hazel Poa, 54, will stake a claim in the constituency since the 2020 General Election.

The three were part of the PSP team that lost narrowly in the constituency during GE2020, with the opposition party claiming 48.32 per cent of the vote against the PAP team’s 51.68 per cent.

Joining them in the 2025 polls are new faces Mr Sumarleki Amjah, 53, and Mr Sani Ismail, 49. Both have been seen on the ground with the party in the lead-up to the election.

The party will also be fielding Ms Stephanie Tan, 37, in Pioneer SMC, which the PSP also contested in GE2020. She will likely face off with incumbent Labour MP Patrick Tay from the PAP.

Mr Sani is an in-house legal counsel and Mr Sumarleki, a former WP volunteer, is head of packaged food and business development at food and beverage company Del Monte Pacific. Ms Tan is a full-time homemaker with a law degree from the National University of Singapore.

The PSP candidates for West Coast-Jurong West GRC and Pioneer SMC were announced by Dr Tan during a media event held at Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre on April 20.

Mr Leong said the battle for West Coast-Jurong West GRC will be an “uphill task”. He added: “We are ready to serve the residents of West Coast, Jurong West and Pioneer as a team.”

The team hopes to address three things: improve the facilities in the constituency, bring more jobs to the area and create a nice living environment where residents can enjoy a good work-life balance.

He said that PSP supporters have suggested that either he or Ms Poa contest a single-seat constituency.

“But we decided that Dr Tan, Hazel and I contesting together in West Coast-Jurong West GRC will be the best way to thank West Coast GRC residents for having strongly supported us in the last election,” Mr Leong said.

Ms Poa said she thought she would contest an SMC to “walk the talk” on abolishing GRCs. That was the plan at one stage, she said, but added that the party came to a decision for the three of them to contest the GRC together.

“With the boundary changes, it has become tougher, but we are not shying away from the challenge,” she added.

Mr Leong also said that this is probably the last election for Dr Tan, who will turn 85 on April 26.

Mr Leong said Dr Tan was “a man who has devoted his whole life to the service of Singapore and Singaporeans”.

He added: “We continue to need him to be with us in Parliament, to guide us to be outstanding MPs like him, and always have the interest and welfare of residents at heart.”

When asked how PSP’s campaign will differ this election, Mr Leong said the party is more organised and has done more resident engagement than before.

Two candidates – Mr Jeffrey Khoo and Mr Nadarajah Loganathan –from the PSP’s GE2020 slate in West Coast GRC are not returning to contest in the new GRC.

Mr Khoo will stand for the party in Marymount SMC, while Mr Loganathan has not yet been announced as a candidate for GE2025.

PSP has also swopped its Pioneer SMC candidate. Mr Lim Cher Hong previously ran there under the PSP banner.

When asked about the changes, Mr Leong said: “What we want to do is to form a more multiracial slate, that’s why we have two (minority candidates) –Indian and Malay – on our team.”

They can contribute very much to national and community issues, he added.

He said Ms Tan was asked to stand because the party is interested in investigating and solving problems faced by young women and families.

Ms Tan is a homemaker who has a legal background. Before she put her career on pause in 2016 to be a full-time caregiver to her two children, she was legal counsel to the Ministry of Defence.

Mr Leong said: “Stephanie Tan is a very good example of a young woman who wants to continue to work while looking after the kids, who was not given an opportunity – or at least an opportunity that she likes – to continue to be in the job market.”

The April 20 announcement sets the stage for a rematch between the PSP leadership and the PAP team, which will be led by Minister for National Development Desmond Lee this general election.

In the last election, former Transport Minister S. Iswaran was anchor for the then-West Coast GRC. He stepped down after a corruption probe in 2024.

In this year’s hustings, Mr Lee will be joined by two new faces – orthopaedic surgeon Hamid Razak, 39, and lawyer Cassandra Lee, 33.

Rounding out the PAP slate are Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Education Shawn Huang, 42, and three-term MP Ang Wei Neng, 58.

The PSP’s strong performance in GE2020 gave Mr Leong and Ms Poa Non-Constituency MP seats in Parliament as they were the top losers of the polls.

On March 11, changes to West Coast GRC’s electoral boundaries were announced. It will absorb parts of Jurong GRC and become West Coast-Jurong West GRC when Singaporeans go to the polls on May 3.

West Coast GRC is also ceding areas including HarbourFront and Sentosa to Radin Mas SMC, and Dover and Telok Blangah to Tanjong Pagar GRC.

The new West Coast-Jurong West GRC is a five-member one, and has 158,581 voters, up from the 146,089 voters in West Coast GRC in the 2020 General Election.

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