Singapore's opposition politician Tan to run for president

Tan Jee Say, a former civil servant and opposition politician, said he plans to run for president of Singapore as an independent candidate.

Tan, who was a principal private secretary to former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, joins three other candidates seeking election in polls that are required to be held by August. Tony Tan, former deputy prime minister of Singapore, Tan Cheng Bock, a former member of parliament from the ruling People’s Action Party or PAP, and Tan Kin Lian, former chief executive officer of insurer NTUC Income, are also applying to contest.

The four candidates are seeking to become the city-state’s third president since the constitution was amended 20 years ago to allow elections for what had been a largely ceremonial role. The change gave the president the responsibility to safeguard the national reserves and veto rights on government budgets and key appointments to public office during the six-year term, according to the government’s website.

 

“I am stepping forward because many Singaporeans want a non-PAP president whose independence of the PAP is clear, obvious and cannot be in doubt,” Tan, 57, said in an e-mailed statement today. “Only such a person can have the moral authority to fulfill the mission of elected president, which is to provide checks and balances on the PAP Government.”

 

Tan has resigned from the Singapore Democratic Party to contest in the polls, according to the party’s website. He lost in the May 7 general elections where Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s ruling party retained power with the smallest margin of popular votes since independence amid a record turnout that tripled the number of opposition members in parliament.

 

The party that has ruled Singapore for more than five decades won 81 out of 87 parliamentary seats and 60.1% of popular votes in the polls two months ago, according to the Elections Department. Lee took over from Goh in 2004 as Singapore’s third premier.