In September 2001, the Court of Appeal threw out Secretary-General J. B. Jeyaretnam's appeal to strike out a defamation suit filed against him by Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The court held that the remark made during an election rally in 1997, whereby Jeyaretnam told a crowd that another politician, Tang Liang Hong, had just handed him two police reports against Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong "and his people", was defamatory.

Subsequently, J. B. Jeyaretnam was declared a bankrupt and lost his Non-constituency MP seat, marking his second disqualification from Parliament in his political career after 1986.

J. B. Jeyaretnam announced in the Notice of the Conference of Organsing Members that he was not seeking for re-election for the post of Secretary-General. The Conference of Organising Members, which was held in May 2001, elected the Member of Parliament for Hougang, Low Thia Khiang, as the new Secretary-General.

In an effort to strengthen the composition and renewal of the party leadership, a few younger members were co-opted into the Executive Council after the new Council took office. This is done to strive towards organisational team building and move towards collective leadership. This was a break from the past when opposition politics in Singapore was characterised by personalities.

"The Hammer", the Workers' Party's organ which had ceased publication since 1995 after legal action was brought against the Party on a Tamil article published, went to print again. It was relaunched and the first issue published in October 2001.

The general elections in November 2001 was a new beginning for Workers' Party.

It was the first general elections to be led by the newly elected Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang. It also saw 3 new young professionals in its list of candidates - Dr. Poh Lee Guan, a training consultant, James Gomez, a political researcher and Yaw Shin Leong, a post-graduate student. What remained unchanged and steadfast was the party's motto, "Power to the People".

Once again as in the previous elections, the ruling PAP was returned to power on nomination day. And as expected, Cheng San GRC, the hotbed constituency that was almost taken over by Workers' Party at the previous elections in 1997, was carved with great surgical skill into 3 portions - Aljunied GRC, Ang Mo Kio GRC and Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.

The Party decided to contest a GRC and 2 single wards:

Aljunied GRC - A team of Party veterans, Dr. Tan Bin Seng, Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman and Huang Seow Kwang and new Executive Council Members James Gomez and Yaw Shin Leong;

Hougang - Low Thia Khiang; and

Nee Soon East - Dr. Poh Lee Guan.

However, after the Aljunied GRC team had filed their election papers, the returning officer disqualified them on technical grounds, claiming that their statutory declaration forms had not been filled properly. The Party ended up with only 2 candidates for Nee Soon East and Hougang. Despite the setback, the disqualified candidates rallied around to support the other two candidates.

Nee Soon East became the hottest contested seat at the election. The issue on the ground was the temple organisers' grievances over the process of obtaining the necessary permits to host the 7th Month activities and temple functions. At one stage during the elections, PAP, based on sources of illegal bookies, placed the odds of Dr. Poh Lee Guan winning at 50% - 50%.

To prevent Dr. Poh from being elected into Parliament and the formation of an opposition enclave in the northern part of Singapore at all costs, the Prime Minister, his two Deputies and the Senior Minister entered the fray directly in Nee Soon East.

The Senior Minister personally went down to Nee Soon East for a closed-door meeting with the seventh month organisers and temple committee members. The Prime Minister even blatantly promoted another non-PAP candidate to ensure that Dr. Poh would not even get into Parliament as a Non-Constituency MP.

The results were:

The Party obtained 26.3% of the valid votes in Nee Soon East. This was quite commendable in the light of the "bookie politics" and the aggressive campaigning by top PAP leaders in Nee Soon East.

Only Low Thia Khiang was returned as MP for Hougang for a third term with a slight decrease of 3.02% of votes. He polled 55% of the valid votes.

Despite all the difficulties faced during the elections, the veterans and new members worked well together and Workers' Party emerged stronger in terms of party unity, and with a renewed determination to pursue our vision.

The Conference of Organisers held during the year 2003 marked yet another breakthrough under the leadership of new Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang.

In what will historically be seen as a watershed for the Party, Organising Members elected 38-year-old Sylvia Lim, a law lecturer, former police inspector and lawyer, to the post of Chairman, the first woman to hold the post in the Party's 46-year history.

The Conference also saw a "mega" Party renewal within the Executive Council with 8 out of 14 new faces elected, whom all were not even members of the Party at the time of the previous Conference in May 2001. This included a new Party Treasurer, Tan Wui-Hua, a professional Financial Controller with a multi-national corporation.

The announcement of the results in the press triggered a renewed interest in Workers' Party and Singapore politics from Singaporeans, including those overseas.

Nevertheless, the further-enhanced collective leadership of the Party quickly emphasised that it had yet to reach the critical mass necessary to be a significant force in advancing the welfare of Singaporeans, thus reflecting the reality of an enormous gap between the ruling PAP and the alternative opposition.

The Party pledged to earn the people's trust as an organisation of committed Singaporeans who are not simply "anti-Singapore" or "anti-government" but will create a brand of constructive politics and play a relevant political and national role.

Two years later, the Executive Council's term ended and another Conference of Organisers was held. This Conference was important as the elected Council was expected to be the one facing impending general elections.

In this light, another three new faces were added to the Council - lawyer Chia Ti Lik and businessmen Goh Meng Seng and Mohd Rahizan bin Yaacob.

The Workers' Party released its 52-page manifesto entitled "You Have A Choice" in December 2005.

For the 2006 general elections, "You Have A Choice" was used as the election slogan along with the trademark "Power to the People". The Party announced 20 candidates to be fielded in the GE, up from the previous 2. This was the largest number of candidates since the 1988 general elections. Among them, 15 were first-time candidates and 3 were women.

Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang defended his Hougang seat and First Assistant Secretary-General Dr. Poh Lee Guan returned to Nee Soon East, while another two candidates entered the fray in single seats - Joo Chiat by First Vice Chairman Dr. Tan Bin Seng and Nee Soon Central by Lian Chin Way, who was the only new candidate fielded in a single seat.

The Party sent its strongest teams into Aljunied GRC led by Chairman Sylvia Lim and East Coast GRC led by lawyer Chia Ti Lik. A youth team led by 29-year-old Yaw Shin Leong was placed in Ang Mo Kio GRC to contest the Prime Minister and PAP leader, a move which caught the attention of many observers. All three GRCs were "new territory" - previously uncontested GRCs.

During the election campaign, the Party outlined the campaign message along the three themes of Accountability, Hope for the Future and First-World Government. The results were:

Despite fielding many new faces, the Party scored at least 30% in each constituency contested, a first for the Party since the 1984 general elections.

All four single seat contestants slashed the majorities of their PAP opponents. Low won Hougang for the fourth time with an increase of almost 8% from 2001 - his best showing to date - while Dr. Poh upped his margin by 5%. Lian swung 13% away from the strong PAP incumbent and Dr. Tan, contesting his third election, doubled the votes compared to the PAP opponent's previous challenger.

In Aljunied GRC, Workers' Party did well enough to send one of its candidates into Parliament as a Non-constituency MP, followed by East Coast GRC and then by Ang Mo Kio GRC, whose youth team took 1/3 of the votes against the Prime Minister.

After the elections, there was a meeting of the Executive Council, which unanimously decided to nominate Party Chairman Sylvia Lim as the Non-constituency MP.