Weekend TODAY: WP candidates, including Gomez, are clean: Low

GE2006

LEE CHING WERN
chingwern@newstoday.com.sg


OOI BOON KEONG
Mr Low and Mr Gomez at a recent rally.

WORKERS' Party chief Low Thia Khiang said that it was under his instructions that his embattled candidate, Mr James Gomez had applied for the minority certificate.

Apart from accusing Mr Gomez of trying to "fix" the Elections Department by claiming that his certificate had gone missing, the People's Action Party has asked why he needed to apply for one if the plan was to field him in Aljunied GRC. The constituency requires only a Malay candidate to be fielded on a slate, not an Indian one.

"I had asked all WP's minority candidates to apply for one, in case of strategy issues," said Mr Low. "This is the reason why James went to apply for the cert. As this episode caused much distress to the Elections Department unwittingly, I asked James to apologise and this, he did."

Mr Gomez did not submit his form but initially accused the Elections Department of misplacing it.

He then said that he did not submit the form because he had been distracted by his busy schedule in the run-up to Nomination Day.

In his final rally before the polls, Mr Low asserted that he had "spoken at length with James and found no evidence to prove that he is dishonest in this context".

Hitting out at Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo for comparing Mr Gomez to a thief stealing at a supermarket, Mr Low said: "It is unfair for George to use the analogy of a thief on James. What has James stolen from the Elections Department?"

He went on to criticise the PAP for making personal attacks on WP candidates.

"Right from the onset of the campaign, I have instructed all our candidates not to make any personal attacks or baseless allegations against the PAP. I believe we must have a more civilised political culture and political engagement must be based on facts and debate and not namecalling," he said.

The past nine days of campaigning has reinforced his confidence in his candidates, said Mr Low.

"The PAP is unable to dig up any skeletons on our WP candidates. Why? Because there are none. They are clean," he said. - ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LIN YANQIN