GE2025: Workers' Party introduces 4 more potential candidates, including IMH senior psychologist

SINGAPORE: Four more potential candidates were unveiled by the Workers' Party (WP) on Friday (Apr 18) for Singapore's May General Election.

They are Dr Ong Lue Ping, Mr Jimmy Tan Khim Teck, Ms Alexis Dang Pei Yuan and Mr Andre Low Wu Yang.

The new faces were introduced to the media at WP headquarters by party secretary-general Pritam Singh and chair Sylvia Lim. 

This follows the release of the opposition party's 122-page manifesto on Thursday, at a press conference where they announced the first batch of potential candidates.

Asked where the four names on Friday would be fielded, Mr Singh declined to say, adding that this would become clear in days to come. 

The party chief also said WP had not spoken to other opposition parties about potential multi-cornered fights.  

ONG LUE PING

Dr Ong, 48, is a senior principal clinical psychologist at the Institute of Mental Health. He works with child and adolescent patients, dealing with mood and anxiety disorders, as well as autism spectrum disorder.

Before 2025, Dr Ong held various senior leadership positions at IMH. From 2022 to 2024, he served as director of allied health, overseeing 10 allied health professional groups such as psychologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

Dr Ong, a father of three children aged 14 to 19, has been volunteering with WP since November 2023. 

He has contributed as a case writer at Hougang Meet-the-People sessions (MPS), and assisted with various community events.

In his introductory remarks on Friday, Dr Ong said: “My friends and colleagues have asked me, why do you give up your leadership position to join opposition politics? My response to that is actually quite simple, it basically is really just another way for me to serve the country I love, and the Singapore I am grateful for.”

He later clarified that it was a "very intentional" decision to step down from his senior management role in a public hospital.

"Going into opposition politics, I think it's only right for me to request to step down because of possible, potential or perceived conflict of interest ... But it's a decision that I don't regret."

JIMMY TAN KHIM TECK

Mr Tan, 53, is the co-founder of Immanuel Engineering, a family-run business that sells process and explosion safety equipment.

According to a biography on the WP website, he has volunteered in the Eunos division of Aljunied since August 2020.

In February 2023, he became Mr Singh’s secretarial assistant and helped oversee weekly Meet-The-People Sessions.

At the start of 2025, he became Mr Singh’s legislative assistant – a paid role where MPs are given a monthly allowance to hire one – organising estate-wide events and continuing to help out at Meet-The-People Sessions, among other duties. 

Besides helping the WP chief, Mr Tan has been visiting residents' homes and meeting them around Tampines town since 2018. A resident of Tampines himself, he now leads the team of volunteers there.

Mr Tan on Friday said he joined the WP in 2017, describing it as his “political awakening” after an amendment was passed in parliament despite concerns raised by opposition MPs. 

He said he envisioned a democratic Singapore with a more balanced political system that has opposition representation.

“After active volunteering with the Workers’ Party from 2018, the concerns of fellow Singaporeans, the aspiration of future generations, and having a team of dedicated party leaders, members and volunteers working tirelessly on the ground, inspired me to step up,” he said. 

ALEXIS DANG PEI YUAN

Ms Dang's biography on the WP website states that the 39-year-old is a senior director of publisher business development at Teads, a media company.

While she has experience in finance – having been a relationship manager in wealth management and private banking - she has since transitioned into the technology sector, working in ad tech, where she currently leads a team of business development professionals. 

Her role involves driving supply expansion in the Asia-Pacific region and strategic partnerships with media owners. 

Ms Dang graduated with an honours in business administration from the National University of Singapore. She is currently studying a master of business administration course at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is expected to complete it this July.

Ms Dang has been involved with the WP for five years, since the last General Election. 

She has volunteered for house visits, wrote cases at Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS), and was part of the planning and hosting team for community events. 

Ms Dang has also supported the party with translation work for newsletters and parliamentary speeches for WP MPs.

On why she joined party, Ms Dang said on Friday: “I believe that Singapore has reached a stage of civic maturity, and that it’s time for more diverse, more ground-up voices to be heard in parliament."

Ms Dang said she was born in Singapore but spent part of her childhood in Taiwan, where her mother is from. 

ANDRE LOW WU YANG

Mr Andre Low, 34, started his career as a disputes lawyer with Drew & Napier under the tutelage of Senior Counsel Davinder Singh. He then ventured into the startup space where he built products in legal-tech, urban mobility and health-tech, before moving to Amazon Web Services.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Low was also previously a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, and is currently a staff product manager in a global financial technology company. He graduated with first-class honours from the University College London’s law school, and has a master’s degree in business administration from Insead. 

Mr Low is a member of the WP media team, where he helps shape strategy and messaging while managing the party’s digital engagement.

He previously served as a secretarial assistant to Sengkang GRC MP Louis Chua for over three years, supporting grassroots engagement, policy research and weekly Meet-The-People Sessions.

Last year, he appeared alongside Aljunied GRC MP Gerald Giam in a YouTube video discussing WP’s redundancy insurance scheme. 

He has also been involved in WP’s Hammer newsletter outreach activities in Tampines, amid speculation that the party may contest in the five-member GRC.

On Friday, while introducing himself, Mr Low said: “I’m stepping up because I believe that Singapore benefits from diversity and a variety of voices all the more in these increasingly troubling times. I feel that we grow stronger when different perspectives are brought to the fore, especially by a loyal opposition.”

He added: “I'm also stepping up because I believe I've seen firsthand how policies can impact real people and their lives, and I want to give voice to those who struggle and do not feel like they can speak up for themselves.” 

On Thursday, WP announced that tech entrepreneur Kenneth Tiong and senior property manager Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik, both 36, would stand in Aljunied GRC and Sengkang GRC respectively. 

Lawyer Siti Alia Abdul Rahim Mattar, 43, and former diplomat Eileen Chong Pei Shan, 33, were also unveiled, though the party did not reveal which constituencies they would contest in.

The WP fielded a total of 21 candidates at the last General Election in 2020. That number could increase this year, though party chief Singh said on Thursday that WP will contest in fewer than one-third of the 97 parliamentary seats up for grabs in GE2025. 

ON PARTY RENEWAL AND A "SHADOW CABINET"

The WP leaders on Friday were also asked about succession planning, on the heels of the ruling People’s Action Party announcing that morning that Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen was retiring from politics to step aside for new blood.

Ms Lim said renewal has always been the WP's ongoing focus and plan. “Any political party that does not renew itself will become irrelevant to the voters and will ossify naturally."

Referencing how she has been party chair for 22 years, Ms Lim said this was not ideal.

“The circumstances were such that in those days we didn't have enough people, so I came in at a so-called early age, at 38 ... When the time comes for me personally, to step down as chairperson, I won't be sorry.”

But she then pointed out that she and Mr Singh were absent from the manifesto launch on Thursday, which was fronted by head of policy research Gerald Giam, deputy head of policy research Jamus Lim and treasurer He Ting Ru. 

“Pritam and I don't need to be there because we have some MPs in parliament now. They have learned a lot from their time in parliament, especially this recent term, so they can carry the can for some of these major projects already."

Mr Singh was also asked if WP, as the main opposition party, had any intention of forming a shadow Cabinet.

A shadow cabinet is a group of members of the principal political party in opposition, that are chosen as counterparts of members of the government who hold Cabinet positions.

He replied that if WP managed to get more MPs in parliament, "a different sort of approach" could be expected. 

“But ultimately, whatever approach it is, it wouldn't be performative. It would have to be an approach which resonates with the people of Singapore, resonates with what voters believe the Workers’ Party should be advocating for in Singapore,” he said. 

Singaporeans will head to the ballot box on May 3 after President Tharman Shanmugaratnam dissolved parliament on Tuesday. Nomination Day is on Apr 23.

Additional reporting by Matthew Mohan