The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has made it clear it will enter three-cornered fights this coming general election.

Party secretary-general Tan Cheng Bock made his party's stance clear on Friday, June 19, while out and about during breakfast at Mayflower Market and Food Centre located in Kebun Baru Single Member Constituency (SMC).

He told the media gathered there: “We don’t want to have three-cornered fights."

"But if we need to, what can we do? It’s not our choice," he added

But he said he hoped “better sense would prevail”, given how parties competing against the People's Action Party decide on areas to field candidates for the next GE.

Asked about where PSP will stand, he declined to reveal the areas that candidates will be fielded.

His remarks are taken to mean PSP will bang heads with Reform Party to take on the PAP incumbent in West Coast GRC.

In GE 2015, West Coast GRC was contested by the Reform Party (RP) and the PAP.

RP won 21.4 per cent of the vote against a PAP team led by then-Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran, Patrick Tay and Foo Mee Har.

Let the people decide

Tan said the decision on where to stand will be based on factors, such as how receptive the constituents there are.

He said: "So, we have to feel the ground, see the connectivity here, who are the chaps here. What kind of value that my men will bring here."

And when PSP has decided to run in an area, it is up to others to pull out.

Tan added: "If they insist that we have intruded into their territory, we can’t help it. We just hope that better sense will prevail."

Tan also said parties are free to do as they please, and Singaporean voters, likewise.

“At the end of the day, how they are going to contest is their own party’s choice," he said.

"Let Singaporeans decide.”

Tan was a PAP MP for Ayer Rajah for 26 years.

The ward has been absorbed into West Coast GRC.

PSP has started holding weekly meetings with constituents from West Coast GRC and Pioneer SMC via Zoom.

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