Ms Irene Ng, a member of the People's Action Party team for Tampines Group Representative Constituency (GRC), has announced that she will not be running the upcoming general elections. The 3 term member of parliament (MP), said that she had asked Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong some time last year if she could step down for the sake of party leadership renewal.
"It was not an easy decision to make as I have come to be very close to this community, and all of you have become like family," she said in a speech during a National Day Family Carnival.
"I also believe in one of the PAP's key tenets - leadership renewal - and fully support this," she said.
Ms Ng has been widely tipped to be succeeded by Mr Desmond Choo, who is deputy director at the National Trades Union Congress.
Mr Choo previously contested against the Workers' Party's Yaw Shin Leong in Hougang in the 2011 General Election, and in the Hougang by-election a year later.
He was last year named the second adviser to grassroots organisations in Tampines East - a ward currently helmed by Mr Mah Bow Tan. In February, Mr Choo took up the same position in Tampines Changkat, under Ms Ng.
Mr Choo did not attend Friday's event.
Another Tampines GRC MP, Education Minister Heng Swee Kent, was also at the family event, where he wished Ms Ng all the best. He said that Ms Ng had served Tampines with distinction, and was also "a very fierce MP" in Parliament. One of the things that she had pushed for very passionately was to make Tampines the first cycling town in Singapore, he added.
"So now, Tampines has a park connector, has a cycling network, and we probably have the most number of bicycles per head in the whole of Singapore," he said.
"It is a legacy that Irene has built for all of us, and we will build on that and we will make Tampines an even better cycling town."
Editor's Note:
Do you have a story to share? Please use our submission form or email us at editorial@allsingaporestuff.com. If not, why not give us a 'Like'?
