"It has been a harrowing week for the Workers' Party and for me personally," Workers' Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Gerald Giam wrote in a Facebook post on July 22.

He was referring to the loss of fellow Aljunied GRC MP Leon Perera, and WP leader Nicole Seah in the same week after the pair resigned as they had not been honest with their leaders over an extramarital affair on July 18.

Aljunied GRC team visited Serangoon ward

Both Giam and WP Sec-Gen Pritam Singh posted on Facebook about the WP Aljunied GRC team's visit to the Serangoon ward, former MP Leon Perera's constituency.

Giam said that WP had lost two "very capable and hardworking comrades-in-arms" but noted that this was necessary to uphold the high standards that WP believes in.

Giam added that the Aljunied GRC team will undertake steps to ensure that "all Serangoon residents in Aljunied GRC will continue to be well looked after".

Singh said in a post that the four remaining MPs will jointly oversee the Serangoon ward of Aljunied GRC collectively.

Apart from representing the Serangoon division as an MP, Perera served on WP's central executive committee and also headed its media team.

Seah also served as the president of the party's youth wing before she and Perera resigned.

WP chair Sylvia Lim announced at a press conference on July 18 that residents in the Serangoon division will be taken care of by other MPs in Aljunied GRC, and that they will be meeting the team of volunteers in Perera's old ward to work out arrangements for "duties and groundwork".

Background

So what happened this week for the WP?

As a quick recap:

• On July 17, a video was circulated showing a pair who resembled Perera and Seah, holding hands in a restaurant
• WP leadership announced that they would be looking into an "inappropriate exchange" between the two WP leaders.
• WP chief Pritam Singh confronted the pair separately on July 17
• WP's central executive committee called an emergency meeting the same night, which lasted two hours until midnight at their Geylang HQ
• Seah and Perera submitted their resignations letters on July 18 and 19 respectively
• On July 19, WP held a press conference to address the pair's resignations
• Singh and Lim also outlined plans for other MPs to cover Perera's duties as an MP

Top image from Gerald Giam on Facebook.