SINGAPORE: Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo will lead the People's Action Party (PAP) slate for Jalan Besar GRC in the upcoming election.

Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How, the MP for the Whampoa division since 2001, will not be part of the team, Mrs Teo said on Wednesday (Apr 16).

Replacing him in the four-member team is former senior civil servant Shawn Loh. The rest of the PAP slate remains unchanged, comprising Mrs Teo, Ms Denise Phua and Dr Wan Rizal.

Introducing the team at a press conference held at Whampoa Park, Mrs Teo said Jalan Besar is a mature estate with a continual need for rejuvenation. 

"It takes effort to understand what really it is that the residents want," she said. "It also takes a set of capabilities to be able to implement, not just conceptualising what might be desirable from the residents' standpoint, but to actually have the capabilities to implement these upgrading projects."

At the last General Election in 2020,  the PAP team secured 65.37 per cent of the vote, defeating the Peoples Voice (PV) party. The PV slate then comprised Mr Lim Tean, Mr Leong Sze Hian, Mr Nor Azlan Sulaiman and Dr Michael Fang.

PV is one of three parties under the People’s Alliance for Reform (PAR), along with the Reform Party and the Democratic Progressive Party. Mr Lim, who is PAR’s secretary-general, has confirmed that the alliance will contest Jalan Besar GRC this year.

The GRC remains unchanged in the latest electoral boundary review and has 106,102 voters.

Mr Heng, 63, made his political debut at the 1997 General Election in Hougang SMC where he lost to former Workers' Party chief Low Thia Khiang. He entered parliament in the next election as part of the PAP's Jalan Besar team.

Over the years, he served in various leadership roles, including deputy leader of the House from 2011 to 2015 and was appointed Senior Minister of State for Defence in May 2018. He is also a deputy secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.

Mr Heng said he hoped the work that he has done in Whampoa would continue after his departure. 

"I would certainly hope for somebody who can take on this work after me, who would have the heart, the capability, the drive to continue to want to serve our people," he said. "In Mr Shawn Loh, I think we have found the person."

When asked if Mr Heng would contest the election in other constituencies, Mrs Teo said she co...