PV's Lim Tean says it's 'disgraceful' his party not invited to TV broadcast debates

He questioned why they were not invited.

Tanya Ong | July 01, 2020, 04:39 PM

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There will be "live" political debates screened on TV for GE2020.

The programme, “Singapore Votes 2020 – The Political Debate”, will last for one hour and involve representatives for four political parties.

Four political parties, which fielded the most number of candidates, were invited to send a candidate to each of the debates.

The four parties are the People’s Action Party (PAP), Progress Singapore Party (PSP), Worker’s Party (WP) and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

PV not invited to debate

In a Facebook video uploaded on July 1, Peoples Voice chief Lim Tean questioned why his party was not invited to take part in the debates, calling it "disgraceful".

PV fielded 10 candidates, one fewer than SDP, which fielded 11.

Photo by Zakaria Zainal.

PSP and WP fielded 24 and 21 respectively.

Lim said that they fielded fewer candidates "all in the spirit of opposition unity". He also said that if they had known about the debate, they would have fielded more candidates in "many more constituencies".

He also said that he will record the debate, and make a video with him interjecting and suggesting what he would have said in the debate if he had participated.

Lim, a lawyer, is leading the PV's team in Jalan Besar GRC, together with blogger Leong Sze Hian, entrepreneur Michael Fang Amin and halal certification auditor Azlan Sulaiman.

This is Lim's video:

For the July 1 debate, the Workers' Party said that Jamus Lim, candidate at Sengkang GRC, would be their party representative.

Lim, 44, is an associate professor of economics at ESSEC Business School.

The English debate will be aired on Channel 5 at 8pm, with a simulcast on CNA938 radio and livestreams on meWatch, cna.asia, CNA YouTube and CNA Facebook.

There will also be a delayed telecast the same night on CNA at 9pm.

The Mandarin debate will be aired on Channel 8 at 9pm, with a simulcast on CAPITAL 958 and livestreams on meWatch and 8world.com.

There will be two segments in the programme.

In the first segment, a moderator will ask the four candidates a series of questions on topics including unemployment, helping businesses and social mobility.

In the second segment, candidates will get to ask questions of other candidates in a structured sequence as well as answer questions posed to them by other candidates.

Top photo via Lim Tean/FB, Google streetview