Democratic Progressive Party (Singapore)

Democratic Progressive Party 民主进步党
Chairman	Mansor Rahman
Secretary-General	Seow Khee Leong
Founded	March 1973, 16 (16-03-1973)
Split from	Workers' Party of Singapore
Parliament	0 / 87
Politics of Singapore Political parties Elections

The Democratic Progressive Party (abbrev: DPP; Chinese: 民主进步党) is a political party in Singapore.

Overview

The history of the party dates back to 16 March 1973 when it was first setup by a splinter group from the Workers' Party and named the United Front. It was renamed the Singapore United Front on 5 March 1982, and in 1988, it was presumably merged back into the WP. However, the party continues to exist in the register.

After the 1991 elections, some members resigned from the WP and again revived the party. In particular, a father and son combination of Mr Tan Soo Phuan and his son Tan Lead Shake, an IT network administrator rose in prominence. The party contested the general elections of 1997 and 2001 but failed to win a seat. Furthermore, in the 1997 General Elections, Mr Tan Soo Phuan lost S$6,000 of his election deposit as he failed to win 1/8 of the votes in the constituency that he contested, at Chua Chu Kang SMC. However in the 2001 General Elections, it was his son's turn to lose the election deposit of S$13,000 in Ayer Rajah SMC where he contested.

The party's Chairman is Mansor Rahman. [1], while the Secretary-General is Mr Seow Khee Leong.

Mr Tan Lead Shake, was part of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) team in 2006 General Elections that contested in Tampines GRC.

Said Mr Tan: "As a small party, we (at DPP) are very limited in manpower and resources. So we think it would be good to cooperate with other parties to contest."

On 28 June 2008, Tan Lead Shake's wife was arrested on suspicion of murder. The younger brother of Tan succumbed to his injuries and died in the morning while his wife remains in a critical condition. His wife, a China Born National, is the second wife after his divorce with his first wife. This incident has greatly affected Tan's reputation as an opposition party member.

Note

The party is not related to the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, the ruling party from 2000 to 2008, which is now led by chairperson Dr. Tsai Ing-wen.

Reference

• Press release regarding DPP, however page has since removed by the Workers' Party