Education Minister Lawrence Wong and National Development Minister Desmond Lee have been elected to the People's Action Party (PAP)'s top decision making body for the first time.

Both of them were co-opted members in the last CEC election, with Wong co-opted on the day of the 2018 CEC election.

The PAP held their 2020 conference on Sunday morning, Nov. 8, with Secretary-General Lee Hsien Loong and First Assistant Sec-Gen Heng Swee Keat delivering their speeches on the state of Singapore, PAP, and the recently held General Elections (GE) 2020.

More importantly, about 3,000 party cadres voted to select their top 12 leaders for its Central Executive Committee (CEC), which is the political party’s highest decision-making body.

The more than 3,000 activists had participated in-person and virtually across Singapore to vote for its leaders.

Top 12 leaders

Following the election, here are the members of the 36th PAP CEC (not according to their number of votes):

1. Lee Hsien Loong

2. Gan Kim Yong

3. Masagos Zulkifli

4. K. Shanmugam

5. Heng Swee Keat

6. Chan Chun Sing

7. Grace Fu

8. Ong Ye Kung

9. Tan Chuan Jin

10. Vivian Balakrishnan

11. Lawrence Wong

12. Desmond Lee

The first seven names were also the same names highlighted to the cadres for selection two years ago.

Josephine Teo and Indranee Rajah were co-opted into the CEC, and are likely to have received the 13th and 14th highest number of votes, not necessarily in that order.

The 12 CEC members were elected by secret ballot from a list of 19 nominees.

According to The Straits Times, the other names on the ballot were labour chief Ng Chee Meng, newly-promoted ministers Maliki Osman and Edwin Tong, Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary and North West District mayor Alex Yam.

Who's out (for now)

The previous CEC included members such as Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen, and veteran MPs Christopher de Souza and Sitoh Yih Pin.

However, the PAP has usually co-opted more members after its election.

Under the party's constitution, the committee can co-opt up to six more people, for a total of 18.

This is usually done at the end of November when the CEC members meet to decide its appointment holders, such as the secretary-general, chairman, treasurer, and organising secretaries.

Hence, there is a likelihood that former members like Ng Chee Meng could still be co-opted in the next CEC meeting.

We deliver more stories to you on LinkedIn

Top image via Lawrence Wong and Desmond Lee's Facebook pages.