PM Lee to nominate Seah Kian Peng as next Speaker of Parliament
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong intends to nominate Mr Seah Kian Peng as the next Speaker of Parliament, said the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement on Friday.
Mr Seah is an MP for Marine Parade GRC.
The role of Speaker is currently vacant, following Mr Tan Chuan-Jin’s resignation on Monday over an affair with former Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui, who also resigned.
Deputy Speaker Ms Jessica Tan is currently the acting Speaker.
PM Lee will nominate the new Speaker at the next Parliament sitting starting on Aug 2. At the same sitting, he will be delivering a ministerial statement.
PM Lee said on Monday that the resignations of Mr Tan and Ms Cheng were necessary to maintain the high standards of propriety and personal conduct that the People’s Action Party has upheld all these years.
At a press conference on Monday, he said he had learnt about the “inappropriate relationship” between Mr Tan and Ms Cheng some time after the 2020 General Election, and counselled both of them – most recently in February 2023.
But he came across recent information that “strongly suggested that the relationship had continued”.
“I think it’s simply inappropriate to have a Speaker having a relationship with one of the MPs... It is not appropriate, it’s not acceptable,” he said.
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