Four people, including Mr Tharman, have declared their intention to contest the election.
The other three presidential hopefuls are businessman George Goh, former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song and former NTUC Income CEO Tan Kin Lian.
Mr Tan, who finished last in the 2011 Presidential Election, held a press conference on Friday to formally launch his second bid for the presidency. He believes that he will be the “only candidate from outside the establishment”.
A former People’s Action Party member, Mr Tan said the party today is “more towards the elite and not towards the ordinary people”. One of his supporters asserted that Mr Tharman’s proposer, seconder and assenters “represent the elites – the establishment, big institutions, chambers of commerce”.
When asked to respond to that, Mr Tharman said it was not a fair description of his proposer, seconder and assenters, whom he had introduced on Jul 26 at a media conference.
Mr Tharman’s proposer is former Nominated MP Thomas Chua, president of the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Association and honorary president at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
His seconder is Mr Mohammad Alami Musa, Singapore’s ambassador to Algeria and head of studies in inter-religious relations at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Mr Mohammad was also president of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) from 2003 to 2021.
Among his eight assenters are filmmaker Royston Tan, businessman Ho Kwon Ping, general manager of Tasek Jurong Kamsinah Sadar, ceramicist Kim Whye Kee, founder of Greenology Veera Sekaran and former head of civil service Lim Siong Guan.
“One of them is an ex-inmate, one of them has been in a social service organisation, activist on the ground for many years. It’s actually quite a varied group of people, one has been … involved with the environment for many years, starting from working in NParks and then moving on to becoming a pioneer in the greening of our surroundings,” Mr Tharman said.
“So it’s quite a wide range of people, I would say.”
He added: “Let’s not try to cast very simple aspersions on any candidates. I respect all the candidates that have come forward. I do think they bring something to the contest, I honestly think so. Let this be a fair contest on the basis of each person’s attributes and track record.”