WP will have 'increased & continued strong presence in Parliament' if they accept NCMP seats: PM Wong

Despite not gaining any new constituencies, the Workers' Party (WP) will be able to send more representatives to Parliament, thanks to the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) scheme.

If the WP accepts the NCMP spots, it will bump up the party's presence in Parliament from 10 to 12 seats.

"So [the WP] will have an increased and continued strong presence in Parliament, as well as the opportunity to refresh some of the members in their slate," said PM Wong, who spoke to the media at a post-election results press conference.

Introduced in 1984, the NCMP scheme sets aside a minimum of 12 seats for members of the opposition.

If the number of opposition members who are elected into Parliament reaches or exceeds 12, there are no remaining spots for NCMPs.

If the number of opposition members who are elected into Parliament falls short of 12, the remaining spots go to the best performers among losing candidates who did not win seats. They will be brought into Parliament as NCMPs.

This was the case in the 2020 general election when the WP clinched 10 seats.

The two extra seats went to Progress Singapore Party's Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa, whose team in West Coast GRC garnered 48.32 per cent of the votes.

Leong and Poa will not be returning as NCMPs because this time, the best performers among the losing candidates were from the Workers' Party:

• WP's Tampines GRC team which won 47.3 per cent of the votes
• WP's candidate for Jalan Kayu SMC, Andre Low, who won 48.53 per cent of the votes

The Workers' Party are not strangers to the NCMP scheme.

In the past, the party sent members like J. B. Jeyaretnam and Yee Jenn Jong to be NCMPs.

Current WP chair Sylvia Lim also accepted the NCMP seat in 2006 before she was elected into Parliament in 2011.

Top image: Workers' Party/Facebook