SINGAPORE: The Workers’ Party has announced the appointments of its top decision-making body and co-opted two of its MPs, a week after party chief Pritam Singh returned unopposed at its internal elections.
Aljunied GRC MP Fadli Fawzi and Non-Constituency MP Andre Low were brought into the newly elected central executive committee (CEC) when it met for the first time on July 7.
This comes after the party held its internal elections and a special cadres’ meeting on June 28, where Pritam faced a vote of no confidence for his handling of a lie involving former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan.
He received 82 out of 106 votes to remain as party chief and was later unopposed as secretary-general in the party elections. Aljunied GRC MP Sylvia Lim, the party’s long-time chair who has held the post for more than 20 years, was also re-elected unopposed.
Party cadres also voted for 12 other members to be on the committee, with most of them returning from the previous iteration. The sole new addition was senior counsel Harpreet Singh, who contested Punggol GRC at the May 2025 polls.
With Fadli and Low – the only MPs in the party who were not elected into the CEC on June 28 – co-opted into the committee, this brings the total number of CEC members to 16.
Four of the 16 are not MPs – Harpreet Singh, who was seen as the de facto team leader of the Punggol GRC slate, former WP chief Low Thia Khiang, former Aljunied GRC MP Faisal Manap and Tan Kong Soon.
Among the appointments that the WP announced on July 8 was that party veteran Faisal would continue as its vice-chair.
Aljunied GRC MP Kenneth Tiong was appointed treasurer, taking over from Sengkang GRC MP He Ting Ru who held the post previously. She is now one of two organising secretaries, alongside Hougang MP Dennis Tan.
The policy research team’s two leaders also switched positions with each other – Sengkang GRC MP Jamus Lim is now head while Aljunied GRC MP Gerald Giam is deputy.
Meanwhile, Harpreet Singh and Low have no appointments.
The current CEC has three fewer members than the previous CEC, which had 19 members.
Four members had stepped down from the committee in the June 28 party election. They are Lee Li Lian, who was MP for Punggol East from 2013 to 2015; Nathaniel Koh and Kenneth Foo who contested the 2025 General Election; and Ang Boon Yaw, who was tipped to be a candidate but was not part of the eventual slate.
In a statement announcing the line-up, the party said: “With this team in place, the Workers’ Party looks ahead with confidence to serve our constituents with dedication, and to advance the interests of Singapore and all Singaporeans in the years to come.”
Nydia Ngiow, managing director at strategic advisory firm BowerGroupAsia Singapore, said the smaller CEC suggests a party looking to consolidate and tighten decision-making after an election cycle.
On renewal, she said the senior leaders remaining in their same appointments reflects managed continuity.
The sole addition of Harpreet Singh also signals that the bar for entry remains high, she said.
“With senior figures remaining anchored in place, the composition of the next CEC in two years may be the more meaningful indicator of where the WP’s leadership trajectory is genuinely heading,” she added.
Sociologist and political commentator Tan Ern Ser, an adjunct principal research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, noted that some of the earlier cohorts of CEC members had made way for new blood.
He added that there are “three different cohorts in the CEC”, with Low and Lim considered party elders, Pritam Singh and those with longer service in the party being the top leadership, and the new MPs, such as Tiong, Eileen Chong and Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik, as well as Harpreet Singh, as the up-and-coming party leaders.
“There is some evidence of renewal, though the current top leadership still has at least two more election cycles to go,” he said.
Here is the full CEC line-up:
Secretary-general: Pritam Singh
Chair: Sylvia Lim
Vice-chair: Faisal Manap
Treasurer: Kenneth Tiong
Deputy treasurer: Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik
Organising secretaries: Dennis Tan, He Ting Ru
Deputy organising secretaries: Tan Kong Soon, Fadli Fawzi
Head, media team: Louis Chua
Deputy head, media team: Andre Low
Head, policy research: Jamus Lim
Deputy head, policy research: Gerald Giam
Youth wing president: Eileen Chong
Committee member: Low Thia Khiang
Committee member: Harpreet Singh
- The Straits Times/ANN
