(Bloomberg) — Singapore’s opposition leader will begin his trial on Monday for alleged lies, potentially putting his party under greater scrutiny before a general election due next year.
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Labor Party leader Pritam Singh has been charged with two counts of lying to a parliamentary committee. He testified in an investigation into a former lawmaker from his party who lied in parliament about a sexual assault case. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have said they plan to ask the court to impose a fine if Singh is convicted. MPs will be disqualified for five years if they are fined at least S$10,000 ($7,653.5) in a criminal case.
Singh’s trial comes a week after a former minister was jailed for the first time in almost half a century in the city-state that prides itself on clean governance. S. Iswaran, a former transport minister, began a 12-month term for obtaining valuables as a public servant and obstruction of justice.
The cases come as Lawrence Wong, who in May became only Singapore’s fourth prime minister since independence in 1965, prepares to lead his ruling People’s Action Party into elections due by November 2025.
The PAP had its worst ever performance in the last 2020 elections, while the Workers’ Party won a record ten seats and two group representation constituencies. But the party that has governed Singapore without interruption since it became a state in 1965 still won 89% of the seats.
Singh was formally appointed Leader of the Opposition in 2020, the first such appointment in Singapore’s history. His Workers’ Party has presented itself as a check on the PAP.
But the party’s fortunes soured in 2022 when a parliamentary committee full of ruling party officials found that Singh “told untruths” during his testimony in the investigation into former MP Raeesah Khan. Parliament then referred Singh to prosecutors.
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