Former cabinet minister Lim Boon Heng is said to form a team
which aims to win back Aljunied GRC that the PAP lost to Workers'
Party in the May 7 General Election. (Yahoo! file photo)
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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.