SINGAPORE: Progress Singapore Party (PSP) said on Thursday (Apr 17) it will field Mr Tony Tan in Kebun Baru SMC for the upcoming General Election.

Mr Tan, 55, was seen with his wife, PSP vice-chairperson Hazel Poa, during a walkabout in Kebun Baru on Apr 12 – the same day the party confirmed it would contest Kebun Baru, Marymount and Pioneer SMCs, as well as West Coast-Jurong West and Chua Chu Kang GRCs.

With these constituencies, PSP is expected to field a total of 12 candidates.

Kebun Baru SMC was also contested by PSP in the 2020 General Election, when its candidate Kumaran Pillai lost to the People's Action Party’s (PAP) Henry Kwek, who secured 62.97 per cent of the vote. 

Singaporeans will go to the polls on May 3 for the country’s 14th General Election.

A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) scholar and first-class honours engineering graduate from the University of Cambridge, Mr Tan began his career as an SAF officer where he served in various operational and strategic roles.

After leaving the military, he entered the private education sector where he co-founded SmartLab Education.

This will not be his first political contest: Mr Tan previously stood in Chua Chu Kang GRC under the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in 2011. He has been a volunteer with PSP since the party was founded in 2019.

Mr Tan previously told reporters he grew up in a single-parent household and that receiving an SAF scholarship had “changed his life”.

“If elected, I will fight for better education policies, greater support for SMEs and workers and stronger community care,” he said in a press release issued by PSP. “I believe in empowering people to write their own life stories – just as Singapore once empowered me. I want to help build a better Singapore where we leave no one behind.”