During a walkabout on July 4, Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh, addressed a statement by Chan Chun Sing of the People's Action Party (PAP), and highlighted that it's not possible for opposition parties to take over the Parliament after polling day.

On July 2, Chan said at a dialogue session in Chinese hosted by Lianhe Zaobao that PAP views the three biggest opposition parties as "people who might eventually replace the government after July 10", reported CNA.

The PAP has contested in all 93 seats.

On the other hand, the three main opposition parties, Workers' Party (WP), Progress Singapore Party (PSP), and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) are contesting for 21 seats, 24 seats, and 11 seats respectively.

"Let's put this fearmongering into perspective": Pritam

Responding to a media query regarding Chan's statement, Pritam explained that he does not think it is possible for opposition parties to replace the government overnight, after polling day.

To elaborate his point, Pritam said "it's important to take a historical perspective to this" and highlighted retired minister Khaw Boon Wan's comments made a few days before polling day in GE2015.

He highlighted that Khaw had mentioned that there was no guarantee that PAP would be in government after polling day in 2015, as reported in The Straits Times.

Pritam highlighted that it took 16 years after Singapore's independence for the opposition to win even one elected seat and "23 years after 1988 when the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system was introduced for the opposition to win one GRC".

He ended his response by saying that the fear-mongering has to be put into perspective and that it's not possible for opposition parties to replace the government after polling day:

"So let's put this fear mongering in perspective, and I hope that historical look-back is helpful in terms of how realistic this prospect Minister Chan paints is possible. I don't think it's possible at all."

Context

During the dialogue session, the Progress Singapore Party's Hazel Poa responded to Chan's claims about a "replacement government", calling it "a bit of an exaggeration".

"There have been contests in nearly every single seat for these past few elections," she said in Mandarin.

"And as we can see from the previous election, PAP usually holds more than 90 per cent of the seats in Parliament."

Speaking in Mandarin, Chan also said he had scrutinised both the WP and PSP's manifestos, and said that "from the PAP's perspective, we don't view them as the opposition".

Saying that the opposition coming together as a coalition has happened elsewhere before, Chan said: "This has been the case in some other countries, that the skies may change. So I scrutinise their policies very carefully."

Chan also said during the dialogue that the number of parties in a government is not "the most important".

He said some countries have many parties in their government, but results are average when it comes to governing.

"On the other hand, there are countries that may not have as many parties in their government, or even ruled by one party - they are doing pretty well," he said.

"To me, the main point is not about how many parties there are that's most important, it is about the hearts of the people."

Top image by Sumita Thiagarajan