It was over even before it began.

We are referring to National Solidarity Party (NSP) council member and former Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Steve Chia's bid to contest in MacPherson single-member constituency (SMC).

Less than four days ago, NSP acting Secretary General Hazel Poa resigned and did not intend to contest in this GE. The reason she gave was that she "strongly disagreed" with NSP's decision to support Chia’s request to contest in MacPherson SMC in a three-cornered fight against the Workers' Party (WP) and the People's Action Party (PAP).

In his FB post yesterday, Chia attributed his own withdrawal from contesting in MacPherson to "the trolls", referring to online criticism via a website that was solely created and directed at Chia after NSP backtracked on its promise to allow WP to contest in MacPherson.

Although Chia urged WP to "take down MacPherson SMC", he gave a back-handed compliment to incumbent MP Tin Pei Ling. Chia claimed that older residents think "she is still better than previous MP Matthias Yao".

Anyway, below is former Senior Minister of State and former MacPherson Matthias Yeo's GE results (65%-83%) to set you thinking whether he was helping Tin with his earlier comment:

And in case you are wondering where is Chia's Facebook post, it has also disappeared within 24 hours.

Top photo by Ng Yi Shu.

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