GE2020: Elections Department explains why PSP and PAP had to remove West Coast GRC posters

The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) team contesting West Coast GRC was "ordered" by the Elections Department Singapore (ELD) to take down 50 campaign posters, allegedly after a "complaint by West Coast Town Council".

The Facebook post ⁠published on the PSP West Coast page late last night (July 2) also ⁠said: "Hours of hard work went down the drain. It was puzzling because the PAP posters were left untouched."

Some Facebook users were angry after reading the post, blaming the West Coast Town Council for what happened.

However, ELD has explained that it was for safety reasons, and all political parties had to remove their posters, not just PSP. 

ELD told AsiaOne in a statement: "Under the law, political parties and candidates are required to seek consent from premises owners/occupiers for posters and banners to be put up.

"In this case, ELD checked with West Coast Town Council, which is the premises owner/occupier where the same lamp posts are located.

"West Coast Town Council asked for the posters to be removed for public safety reasons, as they were affixed to open space lamp posts where high volume of traffic was expected.

"All political parties have since removed their posters from these lamp posts."

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/pspwestcoast/videos/720796508670926/[/embed]

When contacted by AsiaOne, the PSP media liaison person replied with an Instagram video post by PSP's chief Dr Tan Cheng Bock and said that they would not be issuing any further clarification behind the reason for the poster removal.

In the video, Dr Tan said: "Many of my PSP posters were taken down and we are very upset and very sad. But I hope social media friends of mine can help me spread this message and continue to support me. Thank you very much."

West Coast GRC is contested by a PSP team consisting of Tan Cheng Bock, Leong Mun Wai, Hazel Poa, Jeffrey Khoo, and Nadarajah Loganathan; as well as PAP's S Iswaran, Desmond Lee, Foo Mee Har, Ang Wei Neng, and Rachel Ong.

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com