GE2025: PAP’s Ng Chee Meng faces off against WP’s Andre Low in Jalan Kayu SMC (2025)

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SINGAPORE – WP newcomer Andre Low will face off against the PAP’s Mr Ng Chee Meng in Jalan Kayu SMC in the upcoming general election.

The PAP announced on April 19 that Mr Ng, the labour chief, would be contesting the single seat, but up till Nomination Day on April 23, it had remained unclear who he would be up against.

The WP had been giving out fliers in Jalan Kayu, without announcing a potential candidate for the constituency.

Mr Low, 33, emerged as the party’s candidate after appearing at the Deyi Secondary nomination centre in Ang Mo Kio at around 10.30am.

The school is also the nomination centre for Ang Mo Kio GRC, Kebun Baru SMC and Yio Chu Kang SMC – constituencies that the WP is not contesting.

In these SMCs, incumbent PAP MPs are defending their seats.

In Yio Chu Kang, Mr Yip Hon Weng, 48, is up against private college lecturer Michael Fang, 48, from the People’s Alliance for Reform (PAR).

Meanwhile, in Kebun Baru, Mr Henry Kwek, 49, is facing the PSP’s Mr Tony Tan, 55. Mr Tan, a former Singapore Armed Forces scholarship holder, isco-founder of a private education and gaming firm and the husband of PSP first vice-chair Hazel Poa.

Regarding the WP-PAP fight for Jalan Kayu, Mr Ng, 56, told reporters: “Well, I am looking forward to a fair and (respectful) contest.

“I am very focused (on) the many conversations I have with residents about the cost-of-living realities, job security concerns and the different municipal issues.”

He added that he hopes to secure the votes he needs so he can represent and speak up for residents in Parliament and take “practical action to uplift their lives”.

Mr Ng made his political debut in the 2015 General Election, where he was part of the PAP team that won in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. A former chief of defence force, Mr Ng was previously education minister for schools and second minister for transport.

The WP’s Mr Low, a staff product manager at a global financial technology firm, was unveiled on April 18 as a WP candidate, although the party did not disclose at the time where he would contest.

He is also a member of the WP’s media team and secretarial assistant to incumbent Sengkang GRC MP Louis Chua, and started volunteering with the party in 2020.

On why the WP decided to contest the single-member constituency, Mr Low said: “I have spoken to plenty of residents, and one thing I hear a lot is, ‘You know, we feel like we are part of the Sengkang family’... We feel a strong affinity to this place.

“We (WP) had previously contested here when it used to be part of Sengkang West SMC, so I think we are coming home in a way.”

In the 2020 General Election, the party defeated a PAP team led by Mr Ng to win Sengkang GRC.

The WP unsuccessfully contested Sengkang West SMC in the 2011 and 2015 general elections, and the constituency was abolished in 2020.

Mr Low, who is married with a baby on the way, expressed confidence that he could connect with younger voters in Jalan Kayu, and said the contest in the SMC represented “a referendum between the status quo and change”.

He also noted that the seat has one of the youngest electorates among SMCs, with around half the voters falling in the Gen Z and millennial age range of 21 to 45.

Jalan Kayu, which has 29,628 voters, was carved out of Ang Mo Kio GRC after the latest electoral boundaries review.

In Yio Chu Kang, Mr Yip said, he would champion senior-related issues as the SMC is an ageing estate, and will look at building more amenities, ramps and sheltered linkways, as well as services and programmes to cater to the needs of these seniors.

His challenger, PAR’s Mr Fang, told reporters he wanted to help residents deal with cost-of-living issues and advocate to “preserve” jobs for Singaporeans.

Mr Kwek, the PAP’s Kebun Baru candidate, told residents their “best days lie ahead”.

“We focus on what matters most – easing the cost of living, helping everybody live long and well, and standing with you through uncertain times just like we did during Covid-19,” he added.

PSP’s Mr Tan, meanwhile, called for more support for seniors and pointed to what he saw as inefficiencies in the disbursement of various social support schemes as a “gap that can be filled”.

He also called for more programmes to help younger families who are juggling care for young children and elderly parents.

• Reporting by Chin Soo Fang, Elisha Tushara, Hazel Tang and Vihanya Rakshika

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