The People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Charles Chong will be contesting in Punggol East SMC in the upcoming General Election. The party made the announcement in a press release this morning (Aug 27).
The veteran politician was first elected to Parliament in 1988 and has served six terms as an MP. He was also chairman of Pasir Ris and Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Councils from 1997 to 2006. He had managed parts of Punggol East when he was an MP in Pasir Ris-Punggol Group Representation Constituency from 2001 to 2011. He was then fielded in Joo Chiat SMC during the 2011 GE, where he narrowly defeated Workers’ Party’s Yee Jenn Jong.
Joo Chiat SMC has now been taken into Marine Parade GRC following the 2015 electoral boundaries review.
Mr Chong held a meet-the-people session (MPS) in the Punggol East ward earlier this month. He’d said then: “The first thing is to make sure, if we are in charge of this area, that the town council accounts are in order, so we can do the work that we need to do and perhaps also get the Government to restore its grants. Now, it is holding back the grants because the accounts are not right.”
“I know that when we handed over this section, it was in relatively good shape. So, now we’re not quite sure whether the money used here has been diverted somewhere to help out maybe in Hougang or in Aljunied,” he added.
The Punggol East seat is currently held by the Workers’ Party’s Lee Li Lian, who won the 2013 by-election with 54.5 per cent of the vote.
Source: www.todayonline.com
