SINGAPORE — Two political debates on the 2020 General Election — one in English and the other in Mandarin — will be aired live on Wednesday (July 1).

The parties invited for the debates are the People's Action Party, Progress Singapore Party (PSP), Workers' Party and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).    

They are the four political parties fielding the most number of candidates in the July 10 General Election.

Each party has been invited to send a candidate for each of the debates, said national broadcaster Mediacorp in a press release on Wednesday.

The debate, titled “Singapore Votes 2020 - The Political Debate”, will take the format of a one-hour long live programme with two segments.

In the first segment, a moderator will ask the four candidates a series of questions on topics including unemployment, helping businesses and social mobility. In the second segment, candidates will get to ask questions of other candidates in a structured sequence, as well as answer questions posed to them by other candidates.

Invitations were sent immediately after the nomination process ended on Tuesday and it was confirmed how many seats were being contested.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Mr Bryan Lim Boon Heng from the SDP said he will be representing the party in the Mandarin debate while Dr Chee Soon Juan will participate in the English debate.

Mr Lim took issue with the short lead time given, noting that the party was informed of the debates on Tuesday afternoon.

"Of course, it is always good to discuss pertinent issues which concern our citizens on such platforms. The problem is we always receive such notices at the eleventh hour," wrote Mr Lim.

For PSP, Mr Francis Yuen will be participating in the English debate while Mr Leong Mun Wai will represent the party in the Mandarin debate.

WP said its Sengkang GRC candidate Jamus Lim will be representing the party in the English debate. It will not be participating in the Mandarin debate. 

PAP will be represented by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan in the English debate, and Mr Ong Ye Kung in the Mandarin debarte. 

The English debate will be aired live on Ch5 at 8pm, with a simulcast on CNA938 radio and livestreams on meWatch and cna.asia, as well as CNA's YouTube and Facebook pages. You can also watch the livestream on TODAY's website. A delayed telecast the same night will also be aired on CNA at 9pm.

The Mandarin debate will be aired live on Channel 8 at 9pm, with a simulcast on Capital 958 as well as livestreams on meWatch and 8world.com.