[SINGAPORE] With renewal being a key priority, the People’s Action Party (PAP) will field more than 30 new candidates in the upcoming general election (GE), said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Saturday (Apr 12).

This is the largest slate of new faces in recent history, and will include the core of the next generation leadership, he told reporters at the PAP Limbang branch in Choa Chu Kang that afternoon.

“Why make these changes now? Because each time I fail to do so, it’s another five years and then you bring in people later,” said PM Wong.

“It will make it harder, it will be slower to refresh and renew the team, and I think Singaporeans themselves are concerned about this.”

With the upcoming GE to be held in a time of great global uncertainty and turbulence, “who you have in the cockpit matters”, he added.

PM Wong also confirmed that the team for Marsiling Yew-Tee Group Representation Constituency (GRC), which he helms, will be unchanged for GE 2025.

Familiar face-off

The four-member GRC comprises PM Wong in Limbang division, Senior Minister of State for Defence and Manpower Zaqy Mohamad in Marsiling, North West District Mayor Alex Yam in Yew Tee and lawyer Hany Soh in Woodgrove.

They will likely be up against Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), which said on Mar 30 that it intends to contest there. The party also plans to contest adj...