SINGAPORE GE2025: WORKERS’ PARTY UNVEILS MANIFESTO WITH 125 POLICY PROPOSALS

By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz

SINGAPORE, April 17 (Bernama) -- Singapore’s opposition Workers’ Party (WP) unveiled its election manifesto on Thursday, ahead of next month’s general election, with wide-ranging policy proposals including lowering the voting age to 18, implementing a national minimum wage, and formally recognising the State of Palestine.

Published on its official website, the 122-page Working For Singapore manifesto outlines 125 proposals across five key areas: cost of living; economic growth and opportunities; inclusion and equality; accountability and democracy; and security and geopolitics.

To address cost of living concerns, the WP is calling for more essential goods – including basic food items – to be exempted from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as it would ease the impact of inflation on lower-income households and provide relief to middle-income groups who receive less support from existing GST vouchers.

The manifesto also proposes introducing a redundancy insurance scheme for all local workers. Under this scheme, both employers and employees would contribute to a fund that provides financial support to workers in the event of retrenchment.

In addition, the WP is advocating for the abolition of the statutory retirement age, allowing older workers to continue in employment if they choose to do so.

Under the theme of inclusion and equality, the WP is calling for the reinstatement of Thaipusam as a national public holiday in recognition of the Hindu community’s religious observance, thus increasing the total number of public holidays in Singapore to 12.

In the area of democratic reform, the WP proposes lowering the voting age to 18 from 21, establishing an independent Office of the Ombudsman, enacting legislation to regulate political lobbying, and abolishing both the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system and the Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) scheme.

On foreign policy, the WP said Singapore should formally recognise the State of Palestine, even before the conclusion of negotiations on a two-state solution.

“We support a negotiated two-state solution where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live in peace within secure and recognised borders. Such recognition would lend legitimacy to our two-state position,” the manifesto stated.

Meanwhile, WP secretary-general Pritam Singh at a press conference on Thursday, kept mum about the constituencies and the number of candidates the party will field this year, The Straits Times (ST) reported.

In the 2020 general election, the WP fielded 21 candidates across four Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) and two Single Member Constituencies (SMCs), winning a total of 10 parliamentary seats.

 -- BERNAMA