The Workers' Party (WP) will hold their biennial Central Executive Committee (CEC) election on Dec. 27, 2020, according to Lianhe Zaobao.

The last WP CEC election, which was held on April 8, 2018, saw Pritam Singh and Sylvia Lim elected to the posts of Secretary-General and Chairman unopposed.

Sylvia Lim may not run as Chairman

According to Zaobao, although Singh is likely to continue to helm the party as secretary-general, there is a possibility that Lim may step down from her position of chairman this year.

Lim has been the chairman of the WP for 17 years, and is the longest-standing chairman of the party since its founding.

The Chinese daily reported that Lim has not explicitly mentioned that she was seeking re-election as chairwoman of the WP, nor did she respond to related queries by the paper.

This is a departure from 2018, where she stated that she would strive for the position of chairwoman two months before the actual CEC election.

If Lim does not run for that position in the upcoming CEC election, this would be a sign of leadership renewal, which mirrors the move made by ex-WP chief Low Thia Khiang, who made way for Singh to become secretary-general in 2018.

Potential CEC candidates

Apart from the post of chairman, the upcoming CEC election may also signal further leadership changes within the WP, depending on who will be elected or re-elected into the core leadership of the party.

All five Aljunied GRC MPs - Singh, Lim, Faisal Manap, Leon Perera, Gerald Giam - are already part of the CEC.

Currently, Low remains on the CEC, although he did not run for the most recent General Election.

There are 7 WP CEC members who did not run for elections, but are currently in the CEC.

The other prominent WP members include Chen Show Mao, who was a member of the 2015 team which won Aljunied GRC, Png Eng Huat, the former MP for Hougang SMC, Lee Li Lian, the former MP for Punggol East SMC, and Daniel Goh, the former NCMP.

On the other hand, all four members of the Sengkang GRC team are currently not in the WP CEC.

This includes 37-year-old He Ting Ru, 44-year-old Jamus Lim, 27-year-old Raeesah Khan and 33-year-old Louis Chua.

It remains to be seen whether any of them will be elected to the party's core leadership, as part of the WP's recent leadership renewal efforts.

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Top image via Pritam Singh/FB.