Singapore’s Pritam Singh survives vote of no confidence

In his greatest test since taking the helm of the Workers’ Party in 2018, secretary general Pritam Singh has survived a vote of no confidence by his party, inside sources have confirmed.The Aljunied MP, who leads Singapore’s most prominent opposition party, faced a special conference on Sunday morning called by 25 cadre members who were pushing for him to step down for breaching the party constitution.Singh, 49, has also been re-elected as secretary general at the party’s biennial ordinary cadres’ meeting on Sunday afternoon, which was held to elect the WP’s central executive committee. Sources said he ran unopposed, as was the case in 2020, 2022 and 2024.The results of the leadership election are expected to be announced later on Sunday.The secret vote comes amid the concerns of cadre members about Singh’s handling of lies that former party MP Raeesah Khan told in parliament in 2021. He was in turn convicted on two charges and fined S$14,000 (US$10,802) last year for lying to a parliamentary committee looking into the matter.Inside sources confirmed the WP has a total of around 120 cadre members. They must tell the party if they are unable to attend the conference.Party insiders told This Week in Asia that the 25 who raised the issue were predominantly made up of the old guard, who had in recent years grown sceptical of Singh’s leadership.