PAP looks to former cabinet minister to help win back Aljunied GRC

Even though the next general election is more than four years away, the People’s Action Party (PAP) apparently has started to formulate strategies to win back ground support in Aljunied GRC.

Leading this effort will be former cabinet minister and party stalwart Lim Boon Heng, reported The Straits Times.

The former Jurong group representation constituency Member of Parliament, who retired from politics before the election this year, is said to be galvanizing party activists to form a team which aims to win the constituency back from the opposition Workers’ Party (WP), according to ST.

This move is in line with the thrust of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – also PAP secretary-general – that he outlined in a speech at the PAP convention last Sunday when he said that the party will not abandon its activists and the constituency.

Some party activists have been approached by Lim to share their concerns and thoughts on the constituency as a whole and why they had lost the election, said ST.

Acknowledging this, Lim, who has had 30 years of political experience, told the newspaper that he has held discussions with branch members in Aljunied GRC to ensure that certain programmes involving senior citizens continue. He is also keeping a lookout over engagement efforts involving the youth, ST reported.

When contacted, a key branch activist told Yahoo! Singapore that while he has not been approached by Lim, there have been consultations with other party leaders on state of affairs within the constituency. However, he declined to elaborate further.

The May election saw the Workers’ Party make a historic breakthrough by being the first opposition party to capture a GRC since the concept was implemented in 1988.

It won by 54.7 per cent of the votes, beating the PAP team headed by former foreign minister George Yeo.