SINGAPORE, Feb 18: A Singapore court on Monday found the nation’s opposition leader guilty of lying under oath to Parliament, in a case that has riveted the country because it raised the prospect of disqualifying him from office.
Pritam Singh, a member of Parliament and the head of the main opposition party, the Worker’s Party, was convicted on two counts of lying to a parliamentary committee under oath and was fined 7,000 Singaporean dollars, about $5,220, for each count. He plans to appeal.
But Mr. Singh can stay in office and run in this year’s election. Under Singapore’s Constitution, members of Parliament are ineligible for office for five years if they are fined 10,000 Singaporean dollars or more for a single offense.
The case could tarnish the party’s reputation and credibility among undecided voters.
Guilty pleasure
But Mr. Singh stressed his party is part of the “evolution towards a more balanced political system.”
Mr. Singh, 48, is the first opposition leader in Singapore to be formally designated as such. That was a result of the 2020 election, in which his party won a record 10 of 93 seats in Parliament. The legislature was still overwhelmingly controlled by the People’s Action Party, which has run Singapore for decades. But that year, the P.A.P. received one of the smallest vote shares in its history.
By law, this year’s election must be held by Nov. 23. It will be the first time the P.A.P. will face voters under its new leader, Lawrence Wong, who became prime minister in May. He succeeded Lee Hsien Loong, who held that post for more than two decades and is the son of Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew.
Mr. Singh’s charges were related to his handling of another member of Parliament from his party, Raeesah Khan, who admitted that she had repeatedly lied to Parliament in August 2021 in a case involving a victim of sexual assault.
A parliamentary committee was convened in November 2021 to investigate the matter, with Mr. Singh questioned extensively. Lawmakers then referred his case to prosecutors, who charged him with making two false statements during the committee’s proceedings.
“The parliamentary committee was the right body to investigate this,” said PN Balji, a political analyst and former newspaper editor. “It held hearings and concluded that Pritam lied. Could it have ended there with a censure from Parliament, instead of going to the courts?”
Mr. Singh denied the charges, and a trial began last November. On Monday, Judge Luke Tan of the State Court found him guilty in an oral judgment. Prosecutors had sought the maximum fine of 7,000 Singaporean dollars for each charge.
Singapore, usually an oasis of stability, has been rocked by a series of political scandals in the past two years. In October, a former transport minister was jailed over graft charges. In July 2023, the Speaker of Parliament resigned over an extramarital affair with a fellow lawmaker. That year, the real estate dealings of two ministers, involving government bungalows, also stirred controversy.
