The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) unveiled more new candidates today (June 25) and it was quite a line up.

The first batch today consisted of Ng Ling Ling, Tan See Leng, Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, and Tan Kiat How.

Later in the morning, the party introduced Alvin Tan Sheng Hui, Wan Rizal, Eric Chua Swee Leong, and Yeo Wan Ling.

The PAP's third batch of candidates on June 25 consisted of Derrick Goh, Poh Li San, and Raymond Lye.

Here are five observations of this second day slate of 11 candidates from the morning press conference on 25 June.

Type of online press conference: Live, via Zoom

How long: Zoom Pro account - Within an hour per session

Press Conference Participants: Heng Swee Keat + four new candidates + lots of media personnel, followed by Masagos Zulkifli + another four new candidates + slight fewer media personnel

1. More from private than public sectors

For the day's introductions, the party actually fielded more candidates from the private sector instead of the public sector.

From the private sector, we had:

• Family physician Tan See Leng
• Head of Public Policy and Economics at LinkedIn Alvin Tan Sheng Hui
• Lawyer Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim
• Chief Executive of Caregiver Asia Private Limited Yeo Wan Ling
• DBS Bank Managing Director Derrick Goh
• Vice President of Changi East Development Poh Li San
• Managing Partner of Union Law LLP Raymond Lye

From the public sector, there was:

• Former Managing Director of Community Chest Ng Ling Ling
• Republic Polytechnic lecturer Wan Rizal
• Former Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) chief executive Tan Kiat How
• Ministry of Home Affairs director Eric Chua Swee Leong

There are two candidates formerly from the uniformed services - Poh Li San who was a former helicopter pilot with the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and Eric Chua who held the rank of Colonel in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

Yesterday's lineup of eight candidates included ex-Brigadier General Desmond Tan, and ex-Colonel Mohd Fahmi Bin Aliman.

2. Candidates placed emphasis on meritocracy during speeches

Perhaps the unifying theme among most of the candidates yesterday (June 25) was the recurring theme of successful meritocracy — mostly stories of candidates who grow up in humble backgrounds or took on unconventional education routes.

In his opening remarks, PAP's first assistant secretary-general Heng Swee Keat also said that these candidates have been volunteering and contributing to their communities in their own capacities for some time. It was also clear from their introductions that these candidates hold vastly different pet causes that they are keen to advocate.

For instance, while Ng Ling Ling has more than one issue she would like to advocate, there is one she really wants to focus on: Addressing the mental resilience of Singaporeans especially during such trying times.

For Zhulkarnain, it is the neighbourly interactions that we Singaporeans have lost along the way.

Alvin Tan mentioned two areas of interest, one being preserving and protecting Singapore's racial and religious harmony, and the other greening and sustainability.

3. More Female candidates

The PAP is also bringing in more female candidates — 10 in this year's batch.

This is nearly 40 per cent of the 27 new faces who will contest in next month's election.

Two were announced yesterday, while another three were announced today.

This leaves another five more female candidates to be announced in the days to come, including Singapore's first female general, Gan Siow Huang.

Earlier this year, chairman of the PAP Women's Wing Josephine Teo said that the party's batch of female candidates come from diverse backgrounds which will help the PAP establish more partnerships with organisations to champion various causes.

Teo also said that there are now more female MPs compared to 14 years ago when she entered Parliament.

Yeo Wan Ling, in response to a query posed by Mothership.sg noted the camaraderie of the Woman's Wing, and their supportiveness of each other.

4. Candidates portray their media savviness

While most candidates sounded understandably slightly nervous, or a tad monotone, one standout was Poh Li San.

Poh is likely to be a candidate in Sembawang GRC.

Introduced by PAP's Organising Secretary Grace Fu, Poh started her speech in Mandarin.

However, she didn't immediately switch to English when she finished. Instead, she spoke in Malay, before speaking in English.

Besides her impressive language skills, Poh seemed confident and self-assured, and even fielded the doorstop questions easily.

5. The differing styles of the three hosts - Heng, Masagos, & Fu

PAP vice-chairman Masagos Zulkifli and Heng continued to demonstrate similar characteristics as they did during the first round of press conferences on June 24.

Heng was visibly more serious, with an occasional tense smile to the camera.

Masagos continued to show a more relaxed mood when introducing candidates, who were younger than Heng's candidates.

Even when Masagos accidentally cut into Yeo Wan Ling's introduction forgetting she still had a mandarin portion, he cooly apologised before and after her mandarin section.

It may be why the candidates he introduced also were visibly more at ease, and spoke candidly on certain matters.

Eric Chua Swee Leong, for example, was eight days into being a new father and was visibly joyful whenever he spoke about his wife and newborn.

Wan Rizal took the opportunity to congratulate him as well, smiling.

Meanwhile, Fu appeared business-like, introducing the candidates and prompting them to answer the questions briskly and efficiently.

A useful trait for an Organising Secretary.

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The Mothership WFH Press Conference is a series to watch politics unfold from the comforts of one's home.