‘Unacceptable’: Singapore opposition figures Leon Perera and Nicole Seah resign over affair as political intrigue deepens

Both members have left the Workers’ Party after a video emerged online showing the duo behaving in an intimate manner
The development comes as the city state reels from a highly unusual series of misdeeds among MPs from both the long-ruling People’s Action Party and the Workers’ Party

Singapore

Kimberly Lim

Published: 1:23pm, 19 Jul 2023

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Two leading members of Singapore’s main opposition Workers’ Party (WP) have resigned over an extramarital affair, adding to a highly unusual spate of intrigue and turmoil in the country’s usually staid politics.

Leon Perera, 53 – one of the party’s nine MPs in the 93-seat legislature – as well as the charismatic youth wing chair Nicole Seah, 36, tendered their resignation after a video emerged online showing the duo behaving in an intimate manner.

Both Perera and Seah are married, and both have two children.

A leaked video showed MP Leon Perera, right, and youth wing chief Nicole Seah behaving intimately. Photo: Handout

Party leader Pritam Singh said if the politicians had not willingly resigned, he would have proposed their dismissal to the central executive committee. The reason for this stance was their dishonesty when initially questioned about allegations of an affair that surfaced following the city state’s 2020 general election, he said.

“Leon’s conduct, in not being truthful when asked by the party leadership about the allegations, fell short of standards expected of WP MPs. This is unacceptable,” Singh said in the press conference.

The latest development comes as the island republic reels from a highly unusual series of misdeeds among MPs from both the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and the WP.

The PAP, led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is dealing with a major internal crisis after Transport Minister S. Iswaran was arrested last week in a corruption case.

On Monday, Lee said the parliamentary speaker Tan Chuan-Jin and another PAP MP, Cheng Li Hui, had tendered their immediate resignation after it was uncovered they had continued a years-long affair despite being told to cut off the relationship in February.

02:01

Singapore’s political scandal deepens as 2 MPs resign amid separate high-profile corruption probe

An undated video clip showing Perera touching and stroking Seah’s hand in a restaurant emerged on social media just hours before Lee announced the two PAP lawmakers’ resignations. Singh, the WP chief, in Wednesday’s press conference characterised the video’s release ahead of the PAP announcement as an “uncanny coincidence”.

The WP is the ruling PAP’s most formidable political rival, though it only holds nine of the 93 elected legislative seats compared to the PAP’s 83 seats.

The WP had won a total of 10 seats during Singapore’s election during the pandemic – the best performance for an opposition group since the 1960s.

Seah and her team in 2020 put up a close fight against the PAP’s team, which consisted of Heng Swee Keat, who was then seen as poised to become the next prime minister – losing out by 7 per cent of the vote.

Nicole Seah and Leon Perera have resigned from the Workers’ Party. Photo: Handout

The WP has however been mired in controversy since, with a lawmaker forced to resign after misleading parliament, while leader Singh and another MP are facing a criminal probe for perjury.

Perera had first entered politics in 2015 as a non-constituency member, before he joined the WP team to clinch the five-seat Aljunied Group Representation Constituency in the 2020 polls.

Party chief Singh acknowledged that Perera was a “highly effective” lawmaker. The former civil servant had sparred with the ruling party MPs in parliament on numerous occasions, flagging public concerns over civil liberties and various laws, such as the anti-fake news legislation passed in 2019.

With Perera’s immediate resignation as a party member and as an MP, the country’s legislature now has six seats that are effectively vacant. Singapore operates a unique parliamentary system where there are 17 group representation constituencies that are represented by four to six MPs, and 14 single seats.

WP secretary general Pritam Singh, left, and chairman Sylvia Lim, speak at a press conference on July 19. Photo: Reuters

The seats of former WP MP Raeesah Khan – who resigned in 2021 after misleading parliament, as well as that of Perera, former speaker Tan and former PAP MP Cheng, are vacant. Also vacant since July 7 is the seat of Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the popular PAP senior minister who resigned to contest an upcoming presidential poll.

Transport Minister Iswaran has not vacated his seat while he is probed by the anti-corruption agency, although the PAP has said he will not be undertaking MP duties while he is under investigation.

Prime Minister Lee on Monday said he had no plans to call a general election, even as the party deals with the spate of high-profile issues. A vote to elect a successor to President Halimah Yacob must be held by September, while a general election is not due until 2025.