During a Workers' Party press conference on June 27, five GE2020 candidates were unveiled.

And in the Q&A segment, WP chief Pritam Singh and some of the candidates were posed the question:

"A PAP candidate has come under fire due to allegations about his past behaviour. But are you all concerned at all that things from your past might resurface in this campaign, justified or not? How would you respond if matters from your past were indeed to surface?"

Pritam's response

Pritam responded by elaborating on the candidate selection process.

He said that everyone starts out as a volunteer before joining the party. After that, party leaders and senior members in the party will observe the candidates. Then they have to make a "judgement call", on whether these individuals will be able to serve the public wholeheartedly.

And if there are some doubts, then these individuals will not be selected for candidature.

He continued by saying that there's no failsafe mechanism:

"There's no such thing as a failsafe mechanism to ensure that you've ticked all the boxes, what we have to do in the circumstances is to make some decisions based on all the information that we have in our hands.

At times, we will also had to speak to the bosses of some of our candidates, or their friends, to have a better feel of a person. But generally, I don't believe there's a failsafe mechanism out there."

During the press conference, new candidates introduced include Tan Chen Chen, Nathaniel Koh and Muhammad Fadli Bin Mohammad Fawzi.

These three candidates also offered their responses to the question.

Nathaniel Koh

"I have no concern. As candidates, we're at the forefront. We all come under public scrutiny. And it is natural that the public would want to scrutinise each and every candidate. With regard to my past, I have no concern about it."

Tan Chen Chen

"As long as we have a clean conscience, I feel that's enough. We have to keep moving forward and do well in what we are supposed to do."

Muhammad Fadli Bin Mohammad Fawzi

"I don't think that I have anything to be concerned but these days, anything that you posted or you did last time can be taken out of context and spun in a way which can be used to attack you. So I guess if that happened, then I... address the issue as it comes.

But at the end of the day, I have faith in the voters, and I think that the voters during this period will want to focus on the issues such as housing, unemployment or the economy."

Top photo by Mothership.