Context for Monday's drama: https://rdrama.net/h/singapore/post/188427/marseychingchongitsover-gussy-causes-singapores-speaker-of

I love how when scandals erupt in the ruling party the same thing surfaces very coincidentally at the same time in the main opposition party here

I voted for her

SINGAPORE: Workers' Party (WP) senior members Leon Perera and Nicole Seah have resigned from the opposition party after having an extramarital affair, secretary-general Pritam Singh announced on Wednesday (Jul 19).

He also said that Mr Perera has informed the acting Speaker of Parliament that he will be resigning as a Member of Parliament (MP).

"Both of them admitted that they had an affair, which started after the General Election of 2020, but that it had stopped some time ago," said Mr Singh at a press conference, adding that they had previously told the party that there was no truth to the allegations when they surfaced in 2021.

"Leon's conduct and not being truthful when asked by the party leadership about the allegations fell short of the standards expected of Workers' Party MPs. This is unacceptable," Mr Singh added.

This comes two days after a video clip apparently showing the pair surfaced on Facebook, prompting the party to say that it was looking into an "inappropriate exchange between two senior Party members".

It added then that the party "expects all its members to fully own and account for their behaviour".

The silent 15-second clip appeared to show Mr Perera -- an MP for Aljunied -- dining with 2020 General Election candidate Ms Seah while holding and stroking her hands.

It is not known when or where the video was shot. It was first posted by Facebook user "Victoria Wang" and as of Tuesday evening, the video and the account were no longer available.

AFFAIR ALLEGATIONS SURFACED IN 2021

Mr Singh said they saw the video for the first time on Monday.

Prior to this, the party leader was approached by Mr Perera's driver in early 2021. The driver said in a WhatsApp message that Mr Perera and Ms Seah were meeting "very often" at restaurants and hotels, and that they were seen hugging and holding hands.

Mr Singh said on Wednesday that there was no evidence or corroborating information at that time to support the allegation.

He asked Mr Perera about the allegations, and he refuted the claims.

"Leon also shared with me that he was in an ongoing dispute with his driver and was about to terminate his services and had sought legal advice on the allegations of his driver," Mr Singh said.

"Over the course of the next few months, Leon's driver also shared substantively the same information with other members of the party," he said. These members -- Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Gerald Giam, Mr Dennis Tan and Mr Jamus Lim -- have been named in several media reports.

"When they received these messages from Leon's driver, all of them sought to verify these allegations with Leon. Leon told them that there was no truth to these allegations," Mr Singh added.

Several members of the central executive committee also separately approached Ms Seah about the allegations, which she also refuted.

"When the video of Nicole and Leon emerged on Monday, that was the first time all of us saw it," said Mr Singh.

Both Mr Perera and Ms Seah are married.

Mr Perera, who turns 53 this year, has two children. Ms Seah, 36, had her second child in April last year.

The pair sat on the WP's central executive committee. Mr Perera headed the media team while Ms Seah was the youth wing president.

Mr Perera first emerged onto Singapore's political scene when he ran as a candidate for East Coast during the 2015 general election. He subsequently became a Non-Constituency MP, before joining the WP's winning slate for its Aljunied stronghold at the 2020 polls.

Prior to politics, he was a civil servant and later co-founder and chief executive officer of a business research and consulting agency.

Ms Seah joined the WP in 2015, contesting in East Coast GRC at the 2020 polls, after earlier stints with the Reform Party and National Solidarity Party. She shot to online fame as the youngest female candidate at the 2011 General Election, when she was 24.

Ms Seah was last reported in 2020 to be working at a multinational marketing firm.

In 2012, the WP expelled then-Hougang MP Yaw Shin Leong following rumours of an extramarital affair. The incident resurfaced in 2021 when the party refuted claims by Mr Yaw that he was told to stay silent after the alleged affair.

On Monday, former Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin - who had been MP for Marine Parade GRC since 2011 - resigned from parliament and the ruling People's Action Party.

He had been having an affair with fellow PAP MP Cheng Li Hui, who also resigned from the party.