SINGAPORE (AFP) – Singapore’s opposition leader was fined yesterday for lying to Parliament while helping a fellow party member cover up a false witness account, but narrowly avoided being barred from contesting upcoming national elections.
Pritam Singh, 48, secretary-general of the Workers’ Party, was found guilty on two counts of lying to a parliamentary committee probing a fellow Member of Parliament (MP).
The conviction comes as the Southeast Asian nation’s struggling political opposition is seeking to challenge the overwhelming dominance of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in elections expected within months.
The PAP has ruled the wealthy city-state since 1959.
District court judge Luke Tan said that contrary to what Singh told the committee, he had not done enough to get rookie MP Raeesah Khan to admit to her lie in Parliament.
The judge also gave credence to Khan’s testimony that Singh had told her during a meeting to “take the lie to the grave”.
Singh told reporters outside court that based on “advice I have and that I’ve been given, I will be running for the general elections”.
“I have been advised that the law is quite clear,” he said, adding he understood the elections department would release a statement later.
“It’s not going to be an easy election… we’ll have to fight hard, and that’s what we will do.”
Singh, who said he would appeal the court’s decision, was fined SGD7,000 for each charge.
“The path of choosing opposition politics is not for the faint hearted,” Singh said. Under the constitution, a person fined a minimum of SGD10,000 (USD7,400) or jailed for at least one year, is disqualified from running for election or holding a parliamentary seat for five years.
“He will not be disqualified as the threshold of SGD10,000 fine per charge is not crossed. You can’t stack up the fines,” Eugene Tan, who teaches constitutional law at Singapore Management University, told AFP.
