Singapore presidential election: will ‘anti-PAP’ protest voters spoil front runner Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s party?
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam is favourite to win on September 1 but all eyes will be on the margin of victory, a proxy test for the People’s Action Party
- Analysts say Singaporeans may seek to reproach the ruling PAP for rising living costs, political scandals and ‘displeasure with the status quo’
Over the past week, two of the candidates vying to be Singapore’s next president have been revealing details about their private lives, sharing stories ranging from how they met their partners to their personal fertility tips.
The third candidate in the September 1 election, former insurance chief executive Tan Kin Lian, has a different challenge. His social media posts expressing his appreciation for “pretty girls” he spots on the streets do not lack the common touch – albeit in a creepy uncle sort of way, as several commenters have noted.
Equally controversial was his post commenting that a bus filled with Indian people made him think he was in Mumbai, even though Indians have been the island’s third-largest ethnic group since the 19th century.
Despite these gaffes, Tan is being described as the dark horse in the September 1 election. His main asset is that he is viewed as the outsider candidate least associated with the government. He may therefore appeal to the many Singaporeans who want to use the presidential election as a way to signal their disaffection with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).
There are ironies here. Tan does not have opposition credentials. On the contrary, he was a former loyalist of the PAP, serving as a party branch chairman for over a decade. The company he used to run, NTUC Income, is a cooperative of the labour movement, which has close ties to the state. He is seen as the “alternative” candidate only because the other two men appear to be even closer to the establishment, and to have the government’s backing.
