GE2020: No new Indian candidates but Indian community still well represented, says PM Lee

Despite the lack of new Indian candidates fielded under the People's Action Party (PAP), Prime Minister and the party's secretary-general Lee Hsien Loong assured that the Indian community will continue to be represented, the Straits Times reported.

According to PM Lee, there are "quite a number" of sitting Indian office-holders and incumbent ministers of parliament (MP) who were not stepping down.

This was in response to a question asked on Tuesday (June 30) during a virtual press conference.

He said despite wanting to have a balanced slate of candidates each time, "but at the margins, variations from year to year cannot entirely be precluded".

Beyond looking at just the new faces, the party also considered "how many will be in Parliament in the next term", he added. 

As for this year's selection of candidates, the party felt that the final 27 new faces fielded were the strongest of the several hundred potential.

Said PM Lee, "We were not leaving out any candidate because of any racial considerations. Nor should we have specifically said: 'Well, not quite, but we will do it because I want to meet the presentation and it shows I've ticked the box.'"

While he is confident that the party will overall, have a balanced slate, PM Lee gave his assurance that he "will keep looking very hard for good MPs — Indian, Malays and Chinese — and [he] will look out for them for the next term."

rainercheung@asiaone.com