Punggol East polls a barometer of WP’s performance: Lee Li Lian

SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party (WP) candidate Lee Li Lian said the Punggol East by—election will serve as a barometer of her party’s performance since the last General Election.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a walkabout on Thursday morning, Ms Lee said the by—election will show whether residents will have the confidence to give the party their votes.

Chairman Sylvia Lim had said that this by—election is in some way an indicator of how the people feel about the government’s performance.

Turning to the campaign trail, Ms Lee said she wants to press for more feeder bus services for residents. She believes with more feeder services, the load on the LRT can be eased.

She noted: "The LRT is not very big (and it) has only one carriage. So it seems people have to wait for two or three rounds before they could finally enter (the train). It could delay them, and people might not make it on time for work. Feeder services can play a complementary role."

She hit the campaign trial at about 7.00am, accompanied by MPs of Aljunied GRC Chen Show Mao and Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap, as well as MP for Hougang, Png Eng Huat. She also made it a point to catch the morning crowd at Kangkar LRT station.

Ms Lee said: "We did it for the last GE as well, because as you can see Punggol East really has two major malls — one at Rivervale Mall and one at Rivervale Plaza. So we felt that the LRT will be a very good way of reaching out to the early crowd, especially the working class.

"That’s the people that I would like to really speak out for —— working families, young families, young couples. I did that for the last GE."

She added that she hopes to reach out to 100 per cent of residents in this by—election , up from the 60 per cent that she managed to reach out to in the last General Election.

—CNA/ac