WP's Louis Chua says Andre Low has 'taken ownership' of leaked messages issue & has apologised

"We all express ourselves differently," said Workers' Party (WP) candidate Louis Chua.

Chua, who's standing for contest in Sengkang GRC where he served as a Member of Parliament the previous term, was responding to a question on a Straits Times podcast about the leaked messages concerning fellow candidate Andre Low.

The leaked messages showed Low using "inappropriate" language about a number of topics, including a resident he met at a Meet-the-People session.

"I'll just say this. From what I understand, we're looking at private messages sent to close friends in a closed Telegram chat group, which happened a couple of years ago," Chua said.

He added that he believes "we all want to be authentic, and want to be ourselves in front of our own close friends".

What's important as well is that Low apologised and "took ownership of the issue".

Low also did not appear to have used similar language in any volunteer chat groups or with residents, Chua pointed out.

Covid-19 rants

After the messages were leaked, Low, the WP's candidate for Jalan Kayu, said that the messages were "rants" that mostly date back to the Covid-19 pandemic period.

He added that he has since matured as a now husband and soon-to-be father, and after having worked with WP for the past five years.

"To the voters of Jalan Kayu SMC, I am sorry," he wrote. "I take full responsibility for my past actions."

Low has been a volunteer with WP since 2020. and was Chua's secretarial assistant in Sengkang.

Top image from Andre Low's Instagram