by Roderick Chia

A warm hello to all from James Gomez's campaign trail!

The Worker's Party (WP) GRC team for Aljunied has been successfully nominated for running in the elections.

As one of the nominees, James will be standing for election as part of a five-person team with party chairman Sylvia Lim, chief financial officer Tan Wui-Hua, and two others - Mohd. Rahizan bin Yaacob and Goh Meng Seng. All are members of the party's Executive Council.

In spite of a light rain, the WP nominees and their supporters arrived in high spirits at the nomination centre, Pei Chun Public School. The nomination procedure gradually got underway as the weather cleared. The temperature rose, accompanied by the rise of the supporters' expectations as a couple of PAP teams were declared winners when it became clear they had walkover victories. The last GRC teams to appear from the restricted nomination area were those that had to contest - including the two WP teams that were there.

Cheers erupted from the WP supporters as their nominees - now candidates - appeared after their succesful nominations. The former held their flags with the party symbol high to greet the candidates with cheers and shouts of encouragement.

It was a long and tense morning for the WP then-nominees of the Aljunied and Ang Mo Kio GRCs. Now candidates, the first stage of the battle for their constituencies have been won.

Other battles lie ahead, and the WP candidates would be facing them with renewed vigour for the crucial stages of campaigning over the next nine or so days ahead.

For more information or to place comments, please email Roderick at rick_162@lycos.com.

Roderick Chia graduated with a Communications Studies degree, majoring in Journalism from the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He is currently working as an information and communications coordinator in a regional non-governmental organisation. He is a registered voter in Potong Pasir constituency.