Singapore PAP Recruits Candidates from Private Sector for Next General ElectionSingapore's ruling party, the People's Action Party (PAP), has assembled 14 new faces for the next general election and most of the people identified so far come from the private sector, the local English newspaper "The Straits Times" reported Monday, December 25.These are the 12 new faces the PAP party leaders have picked as potential candidates from among the about 300 people they met informally over lunch and tea since the January 1997 general election and the other two are candidates who lost in the last polls, according to the paper. The PAP slate assembled so far is a multi-racial one with more than one candidate each from the Malay and Indian communities and include two women, the paper added. The Minister for Home Affairs was quoted as saying that these candidates "have a varied background from banking to the unions, real-estate management, senior management in multi-nationals, local companies, government-linked companies." "Although most of them are from the private sector, quite a few do have or did have some public-sector experience," the minister was quoted as adding. The paper also said that the PAP has formed an election campaign committee in line with the past practice and the minister chairs the committee. According to the paper, the PAP now has 15,000 members and for each of the past three years the party has added 1,000 members. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |