SINGAPORE: Shipping lawyer and long-time People’s Action Party (PAP) activist Gho Sze Kee will go up against independent candidate Jeremy Tan in Mountbatten SMC. 

Speaking to a crowd gathered at the nomination centre in Kong Hwa School on Wednesday (Apr 23), Ms Gho said that her aim was to make the SMC more “inclusive".

“Let’s walk together and journey to make Mountbatten a more inclusive society where no one ever needs to feel alone," she said.

Ms Gho will face independent candidate Mr Jeremy Tan.

Mr Tan, 34, who listed his occupation as retired on his nomination papers, told CNA that he was motivated to contest as he believed the next generation looks “worse off than the current or previous generation”. 

“I live 600m outside of Mountbatten. I'm fighting to be an independent, full-time MP. To be a good MP, I believe I must be close to my residents. 

“It’s the best place for me to run, because I observe what's going on the ground without having to make trips, because I live and I breathe and I exist, you know, and I use all the facilities,” said Mr Tan.

PAR secretary-general Lim Tean had staked a claim on Mountbatten SMC earlier in the month, when he said it would field 14 candidates in seven constituencies in the upcoming polls. 

However, on Wednesday at Kong Hwa School, which was a nomination centre for a few of the constituencies the PAR had expressed interest in, the PAR only sought to field a team in Jalan Besar GRC and Mr Lim in Potong Pasir SMC. 

On the PAP slate, Ms Gho, 46, is replacing Mr Lim Biow Chuan, a four-term MP who was deputy speaker from 2016 to 2020. It was announced last Sunday that he would step down from the ward.

Mr Lim was first elected as part of PAP’s slate for Marine Parade GRC in the 2006 General Election. After Mountbatten was carved out of the GRC to form an SMC, he would go on to be re-elected as a Member of Parliament for the ward three more times in 2011, 2015 and 2020.

At the last recent election, he won 73.82 per cent of the vote against first-time candidate Sivakumaran Chellappa of the Peoples Voice party. 

According to the report released by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) in March, Mountbatten SMC has 22,754 eligible voters.