The first live debate between four political parties contesting in GE2020 was held on July 1.

One of the highlights of the debate was when Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) Chee Soon Juan challenged People's Action Party's Vivian Balakrishnan to state categorically whether or not the People's Action Party (PAP) wanted to raise the population to 10 million people.

Vivian responded that before the debate on the same day, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement "advising people like [Chee] not to indulge in falsehoods".

He said: "The government doesn't have a target for the population."

SDP has achieved one of its five calls

The day after the debate on July 2, the SDP issued a press release on its Facebook page that it has achieved one of the five calls in their campaign slogan "4 Yeses and 1 No".

It said: "Within Day 1 of our campaign, we have already achieved victory on our call for the "no" to a 10-million population."

The post said that the Vivian's confirmation that the PAP will not raise the population to 10 million was a result of Chee's question in the debate.

It also denied Vivian's claim that bringing up the 10 million population was a strawman argument.

Chee, during the debate, referenced a Straits Times article that reported Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat citing former chief planner Liu Thai Ker, "who said in 2014 that Singapore should plan for 10 million people for it to remain sustainable in the long term".

SDP, in its post, also referenced Facebook posts by author Sudhir Vadaketh and ex-chief economist for Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) Yeoh Lam Keong.

The post added: "As such, we take strong objection to Dr Balakrishnan's accusation that Dr Chee had raised a "strawman" argument. The idea of a 10-million population is not an SDP's invention or imagination. It was first broached by Mr Liu Thai Ker, whom Mr Heng cited in his comments and reported by the Straits Times."

The press release ended by calling upon the PAP to "tell Singaporeans what its target population is beyond the vague statement that it would be "significantly below" 6.9 million."

Read the full press release here: