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A People's Action Party (PAP) candidate for Aljunied GRC, Victor Lye, has remarked that fellow PAP candidate Murali Pillai, who is standing in Bukit Batok SMC, faces "unscrupulous political intimidation".

Praise for Murali

In a Facebook post on July 3, Lye, who has also contested as a candidate for Aljunied GRC in 2015, added that Murali faced the "same underhand tactics with us in Aljunied."

Lye shared that he and the PAP Aljunied team had met Murali at Mediacorp when they recorded the national political broadcast. Lye is likely referring to the constituency political broadcast.

First, Lye shared some praise for Murali:

"Murali came from Bukit Batok to join me in Aljunied when few dared to come. He worked hard in Aljunied, always humble and gentle. When the by-election came up in Bukit Batok, I felt he should go "home" and stand as the PAP candidate there. He did us proud."

Murali was part of the PAP's Aljunied team that lost to the Workers' Party by a narrow margin in 2015. There was word that he did really well in his Paya Lebar constituency against Chen Show Mao, which Chen disputes.

He then stood in the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election, beating Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) leader Chee Soon Juan.

Supposed "underhand" tactics

However, Lye also made some remarks about alleged "underhand tactics" that he faced in Aljunied, and which Murali supposedly faces in the upcoming general election.

"The unscrupulous political intimidation will not deter Murali. He faced the same underhand tactics with us in Aljunied. They must be scared of Murali's good work for the people of Bukit Batok!"

It is unclear what underhand tactics Lye is referring to, either in Aljunied in GE2015, or in Bukit Batok in GE2020.

Murali recently shared a video of himself speaking about a "scurrilous" online attack against his family.

Chee: This is not what politics should be

Chee, his opponent for Bukit Batok SMC, said in a Facebook post that he had not seen the video, but had seen Murali's "anguished response" to it.

He said "this is not what politics should be. Politics is about ideas on how we can make our nation better, not personal attacks like this."

He added, "I stand with Mr Murali on this and call on whoever who did this video to stop it and for others not to circulate it."

Mothership has contacted Lye for comment. You can see the Facebook post below:

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Top image from Victor Lye's Facebook page.