After an absence of four years, former Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian has returned to the top decision-making body of the Workers’ Party (WP).
Ms Lee was elected to the Central Executive Committee (CEC) after stepping down in 2020.
Source: Lee Li Lian on Facebook
Mr Pritam Singh and Ms Sylvia Lim both retained their positions as Secretary-General and Chairperson respectively.
Ms Lee’s return to the CEC was announced in a media release by the WP on Sunday (30 June).
It said that the party held its Cadre Members’ Conference on that day and 12 people were elected to the CEC:
They were elected by WP cadres, who also voted for the party’s top two leaders: Secretary-General and Chairperson.
These posts were retained by 48-year-old Mr Singh, who is Leader of the Opposition, and 59-year-old Ms Lim, who is his fellow Aljunied GRC MP.
Source: Pritam Singh on Facebook
Former MP and party leader Low Thia Khiang was also re-elected to the CEC.
The various appointment-holders of the CEC will be announced in due course, WP said, adding:
The new CEC has taken office, with a mix of members of different ages and backgrounds; and has started work with immediate effect.
Ms Lee is the only new addition to the CEC line-up from the WP’s previous internal election less than two years ago.
In Nov 2022, 13 members were elected to the CEC.
However, Mr Leon Perera and Ms Nicole Seah resigned from the party last year after admitting to an affair, leaving 11 CEC members.
Ms Lee is a familiar face in Punggol East, having memorably won a by-election there in 2013 when it was a Single-Member Constituency (SMC).
Source: Lee Li Lian on Facebook
She was an MP for two years before being defeated by People’s Action Party candidate Charles Chong during the 2015 General Election (GE2015).
As she was the losing opposition candidate who received the highest vote share in the election, she was offered a Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) seat. However, she declined.
While her former ward of Punggol East was subsumed into Sengkang GRC before GE2020, she didn’t run as a candidate in the election.
But she didn’t stay away from WP — after the party won the GRC, she was appointed as a town councillor for the newly formed Sengkang Town Council.
Source: Lee Li Lian on Facebook
However, it seemed that she had stepped down from the political fray in December 2020, when she was not elected to the WP CEC.
Now that she’s back, it remains to be seen whether this augurs anything about WP’s slate of candidates for the next GE.
Also read: Ex-MP Lee Li Lian Will Be Sengkang Town Councillor, 4 MPs Are Elected Members
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Featured images adapted from Lee Li Lian on Facebook and Pritam Singh on Facebook.
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