as an SDP candidate in Potong Pasir SMC again, this time against a new PAP candidate Mah Bow Tan. In the lead-up to the election, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew compared Chiam and Mah's O Level results in a rally speech: "Mah Bow Tan, age 16, took his 'O' Levels—six distinctions, two credits. Mr Chiam, age 18—six credits, one pass." The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) later conveyed an apology from Lee for making an error about Chiam's results; Chiam had actually gotten seven credits. Chiam eventually won the election with 60.28% of the vote against Mah's 39.72%, and was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Potong Pasir SMC. He retained his parliamentary seat in Potong Pasir SMC following the 1988 and 1991 general elections after garnering 63.13% and 69.64% of the vote in those two elections against PAP candidates Kenneth Chen and Andy Gan respectively. When Chiam was first elected into Parliament in 1984, he was only one of two opposition Members of Parliament, the other being J. B. Jeyaretnam, the Workers' Party secretary-general. After Jeyaretnam lost his parliamentary seat in 1986, Chiam remained the sole elected opposition Member of Parliament until after the 1991 general election, which saw three other opposition politicians becoming elected Members of Parliament: Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen of the SDP, and Low Thia Khiang of the Workers' Party. Chiam was the de facto Leader of the Opposition. At the time of the 1991 general election, the SDP had its best electoral results—having all nine candidates polled in the top 10, scoring 48.6% of the party's popular vote, including Chiam's personal best electoral result at 69.64%. Leaving the SDP In 1992, Chiam recruited Chee Soon Juan, a psychology lecturer at the National University of Singapore, to join a four-member SDP team to contest in Marine Parade GRC in the 1992 by-elections. Although the SDP team lost after garnering just 24.5% against a four-member PAP team led by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Chee's candidacy had generated considerable public interest as it was the first time that an academic from a state-run university had stood for election against the PAP. Chee subsequently became the assistant secretary-general of the SDP and Chiam's protégé. In 1992, PAP Member of Parliament Choo Wee Khiang said in a speech that when he drove to Little India one evening, he found it "pitch dark, not because there