GE2025: Lawyer Marshall Lim to contest Hougang SMC for the PAP

Criminal lawyer Marshall Lim will contest Hougang SMC for the PAP at the upcoming general election.

Mr Lim, 38, was officially introduced to the media on April 13 as an electoral candidate for the ruling party in the opposition WP's stronghold.

"It has been a privilege to serve Singapore and Singaporeans as a lawyer in private practice and as a public servant.

"I now ask Singaporeans and especially our Hougang residents to give me an opportunity to fight for you, your family and our community as your leader," he told reporters.

While the WP have yet to announce their slate of candidates for the 2025 polls, Mr Lim will likely face off against incumbent MP and shipping lawyer Dennis Tan, 54, who retained the Hougang seat for the opposition party in 2020 with 61.21 per cent of the vote.

Hougang SMC is the longest-held opposition constituency in Singapore's electoral history and has been in WP hands since former party chief Low Thia Khiang won it in 1991.

Mr Lim, a former public prosecutor turned defence lawyer, was appointed chairman of the PAP's Hougang SMC branch only in February. This was part of sweeping changes made to the ruling party's line-up in the WP wards of Hougang and Aljunied.

Mr Lim took over the PAP branch chairmanship in Hougang from business owner and former trade unionist Jackson Lam, who was himself a replacement for Mr Lee Hong Chuang.

Mr Lee, who contested the Hougang seat in the 2015 and 2020 elections, has since been spotted walking the ground in Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC with Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat.

Meanwhile, Mr Lam has been tipped as a potential candidate in Nee Soon GRC, having made appearances at several recent constituency events there.

Mr Lim, who is a partner at local law firm Martin & Partners, previously served as an assistant chief public defender at the Public Defender's Office, which provides legal aid to those facing non-capital charges.

He also has experience as a litigator in private practice.

Hougang SMC is one of nine constituencies that will have not had their boundaries redrawn for the upcoming election. As at Feb 1, the single-seat constituency has 29,433 registered electors.

According to a Straits Times analysis of data published by the Department of Statistics in June 2024, Hougang has one of the highest shares of Gen Z and millennial voters, aged 21 to 45, at 44.2 per cent. This is more than the national average of 42.1 per cent.

Hougang also has a sizable proportion of residents living in private properties, ranking sixth out of the 33 constituencies at the coming polls, according to ST's estimates. More than eight in 10 residents in the single-seat ward are Chinese.