'Lee's health not a factor in polls'

'Lee's health not a factor in polls'

SINGAPORE (AFP): Elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew is back in shape after treatment for a heart problem and his health would not affect the timing of the next elections, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said in remarks published yesterday.

Goh declined to give any timetable for the next general elections, widely expected to be held by April, but said it would have to come after the expected passage of the budget sometime in March, the Straits Times said.

The premier was quoted as saying on Sunday that the health of the 72-year-old Lee, who has ruled out political retirement following his hospitalization last month, was not a factor in deciding the election date.

"He is all right now. He is bubbling away, attending cabinet meetings, so that is not a question anymore," said the 54-year- old Goh, who is seeking another five-year term as premier of the city-state.

Lee, who governed Singapore from 1959 until stepping down as prime minister in 1990 in favor of Goh, underwent angioplasty, a procedure using a bubble-tipped tube to clear up a narrowed coronary artery, in January.