J. B. Jeyaretnam - Return To Parliament

Return To Parliament

Jeyaretnam was unable to contest the 1991 general election as it was held a few months before his parliamentary ban expired. However the WP did gain a new MP in that election when its Assistant Secretary-General, Low Thia Khiang, was elected in the constituency of Hougang. Some critics speculated that Lee Kuan Yew's successor as Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, had called the general election in 1991 even though he could have waited another two years in order to prevent Jeyaretnam from standing. However Goh insisted that he had done so to gain a personal mandate shortly after becoming Prime Minister in 1990, and noted that he planned to hold a by-election in 1992 (with the aim of bringing new blood into the PAP's parliamentary team) in which Jeyaretnam would be eligible to stand. The 1992 by-election was held in the Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (in which parties had to field a slate of four candidates), and was expected to mark the return of Jeyaretnam as a parliamentary candidate. One of the WP's candidates backed out at the last minute and failed to turn up on nomination day, preventing the party from registering its team for the election.

At the 1997 general election, Jeyaretnam stood as a WP candidate in the Cheng San Group Representation Constituency. The party lost to the PAP's team in the constituency by 45.2% of the votes to 54.8%. Low was re-elected as the MP for Hougang, and Chiam See Tong (who had left the Singapore Democratic Party to join the Singapore People's Party) was re-elected as the MP for Potong Pasir. As only two opposition MPs had been elected, one NCMP seat was offered to Workers' Party to be taken by a member of their team from Cheng San (as their team had garnered the highest percentage of the vote of any opposition losing candidates), and the party selected Jeyaretnam to return to Parliament as its NCMP.