Nicole Seah

Nicole Rebecca Seah Xue Ling (Chinese: 佘雪玲; pinyin: Shé Xuělíng; born 17 October 1986) is a Singaporean former Workers' Party politician.

Seah rose to prominence as a candidate representing the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in Marine Parade GRC in the 2011 general election.

[1][2] At the age of 24, she was the youngest female candidate standing in the election,[3] and immediately became a target of media attention, which became increasingly pronounced as her speeches began to go viral on YouTube.

During the election, her number of social media followers rendered her being described as the second most popular Singaporean politician online after Lee Kuan Yew.

Her interest in politics was sparked by a meeting with a destitute woman, who – despite having a roof over her head – had no money for food, and was completely dependent on handouts from charity.

[10] Seah was announced as a member of the five-person NSP team contesting in the Marine Parade GRC in the 2011 Singaporean general election on 21 April 2011.

[13][14] On 27 April, Goh Chok Tong, former prime minister and Seah's opponent from the People's Action Party (PAP) team, complained that "I look at NSP and they appear to have only one person in charge and the four men are leaving it to the young lady to campaign and say all the things".

[22] On 30 July 2011, Seah endorsed presidential candidate Tan Jee Say, saying that "We need a President who is intellectual, who is a brilliant thinker, and not only that, someone who has a heart for the people and who can represent Singapore on the greater world stage.

[25] On 28 August 2011, the presidential election ended with Tan coming in third in the four-corner race, garnering 25.04 per cent or 529,732 votes out of a 2.1 million cast.

She referred to a "terrible, irreversible mistake" she made during the presidential election two years ago as well, but did not mention it in specifics, only saying she "completely underestimated what her lobbying could do".

Seah said she "felt like a fraud" being invited to speak at conferences when she was not an expert on "everything or anything", becoming self-conscious about her need to look and appear a certain way "so people wouldn't walk away feeling they've been cheated".

"I was only cheating myself," she wrote, revealing also that she was constantly being stalked with threats of rape and death, and how she was played out dating 2-3 men who were “obviously more interested” in her public profile than who she really was as a person, and the combination of all these things triggered the start of her meltdown.

Her health then declined further, when she was hospitalised for slightly more than half a month, and wrote that she "practically subsisted on crackers and water because she was too weak to eat anything else".

[32] A few days later on 24 August 2015, Seah's Facebook post linking an article on He Ting Ru, who had contested as a Workers' Party candidate, has sparked speculation over her political allegiance.

[35] She was later unveiled as a candidate by the party on 25 June 2020,[36] and was announced to be contesting in a five-member Workers' Party team for the East Coast Group Representation Constituency in the 2020 Singaporean general election, where they faced off against Deputy Prime Minister and former Tampines Group Representation Constituency MP Heng Swee Keat.

[40] On 19 July 2023, the Workers' Party announced Seah had resigned from WP,[41] after a video was published on Facebook showing her and Leon Perera behaving intimately with one another.

Party leader Pritam Singh told the press that he would have sacked both of them had they not offered their resignations, as they had initially been untruthful when they were first asked about rumours of an affair between them following the 2020 general election.

[49] On 19 July, WP secretary-general Pritam Singh revealed that Perera and Seah began an affair some time after the 2020 general elections, which had ended before the video surfaced.

Seah in 2011 during her rally speech at Tampines Stadium as a candidate of the National Solidarity Party
Seah as a Workers' Party candidate
Seah fist-bumping an elderly lady