Workers’ Party hires commercial agencies to screen potential candidates for GE2025

Workers’ Party becomes 1st political party to hire commercial firms to screen candidates for elections

The Workers’ Party (WP) election committee has engaged commercial agencies to conduct background checks on potential candidates in preparation for the upcoming general election.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, this is believed to be the first time a local political party has publicly enlisted commercial firms for such a screening process.

Source: Pritam Singh on Facebook

Leader of the Opposition and Secretary-General of the Workers’ Party, Pritam Singh, addressed these measures during the Workers’ Party Members’ Forum on 11 Jan.

While acknowledging that the process is not foolproof and cannot guarantee the uncovering of all past mistakes, he assured that the party would make every effort to ensure a thorough review.

A stricter selection process

On 17 Jan, Mr Singh shared a link to the transcript of his speech on his Facebook page.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao

In his address, Pritam Singh highlighted the importance of teamwork and reaffirmed the party’s goal of securing one-third of the seats in Parliament.

He also mentioned that the party would field a team of both new and experienced faces, encouraging members to recruit more volunteers while reminding them to maintain proper conduct in public.

Eugene Tan, Associate Professor of Law at Singapore Management University (SMU) and long-time observer of local politics, told Lianhe Zaobao that he believes the WP is the first political party to publicly hire commercial firms to screen potential candidates.

“This could be a deliberate response to the resignation of two MPs elected in 2020, aiming to demonstrate that the WP is implementing a stricter candidate vetting and selection process,” he said.

The WP initially had 10 elected members in the 2020 general election.

However, former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan resigned in 2021 after lying in Parliament, while former Aljunied GRC MP Leon Perera left the party in 2023 due to an extramarital affair with WP member Nicole Seah.

WP seen as leading opposition party

Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore, stated that the public increasingly perceives the WP as the preferred opposition party.

As a result, the party likely prioritises nominating high-quality candidates, strengthening its selection processes, and reducing the risk of members being involved in controversial incidents.

Dr Mustafa also suggested that the WP probably engaged firms with expertise in recruitment or specialising in human resources.