Singapore’s opposition leader was yesterday convicted of lying to parliament while helping a fellow party member to cover up a false witness account, in a case that could disqualify him from running in upcoming national elections.
Pritam Singh, 48, secretary-general of the Workers’ Party, was found guilty on two counts of lying to a parliamentary committee that was probing a fellow lawmaker.
The conviction is a blow to the Southeast Asian nation’s struggling political opposition, which is seeking to challenge the overwhelming dominance of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in elections expected within months.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The PAP has ruled the city-state since 1959.
District court judge Luke Tan said that contrary to what he told the committee, Singh 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’s sentence, which is likely to be handed down at a later date, could have a devastating effect, as it would determine whether he could stand in general elections to be held before November.
Under the constitution, a person fined a minimum of S$10,000 (US$7,456) or jailed for at least one year is disqualified from running for election or holding a parliamentary seat for five years.
Singh faces a maximum sentence of three years’ behind bars and a fine of up to S$7,000 on each charge.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers had previously said that the prosecution would seek a fine for each charge.
Raeesah Khan, who resigned from the legislature following the scandal, had admitted to making up a story she told in parliament about a female rape victim she accompanied to make a police report.
The former MP confessed that she lied when she told parliament in 2021 that a police officer supposedly made “insensitive comments” about the way the alleged victim was dressed and that she had drunk alcohol.
However, Singaporean Minister of Home Affairs K. Shanmugam had said there was no record in the police files of such an incident and Khan eventually admitted to lying about the story.
Singh was then accused of lying to the parliamentary committee investigating Khan. He allegedly told the committee that he was not aware that Khan had made up the story about the rape victim, in an apparent attempt to downplay his own responsibility as party leader, court documents said.
However, the judge tore through Singh’s credibility as a witness.
In the 2020 general elections, the PAP won 83 of the 93 seats at stake to retain its dominance, but the main opposition Workers’ Party stole the show when it captured 10 seats, four more than previously held, in its strongest performance yet since independence in 1965.
Its leaders have said they hope to further increase the party’s numbers in parliament in the upcoming elections, which would be new Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s (黃循財) first major political test.
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