In an unprecedented move in Singapore, Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh could be stripped of his title as Leader of Opposition and lose his privileges when Singapore’s parliamentarians debate his suitability for the role next week, legal experts say.
Singh was the first to be appointed to the official role in 2020 by then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong after the general election that year, when the WP won a record 10 out of 93 seats.
On Friday, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah tabled a motion for next Tuesday or later in the week, calling on parliament to consider that Singh’s “conviction and conduct render him unsuitable to continue as the Leader of the Opposition” and to express regret at his conduct, which was “dishonourable and unbecoming” of an MP.
This comes after Singh, MP for Aljunied constituency, was convicted on two charges and fined S$14,000 (US$10,879) in February last year for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee looking into a lie former WP MP Raeesah Khan told in parliament in 2021. His conviction was upheld on December 4 after he appealed against it.
