But her plea has raised eyebrows among some netizens. On a Facebook page, she stated that the donated funds will go directly into a bank account in her name.
While the online plea has garnered its share of supporters with more than 500 "likes" on her post, some netizens are unsure about the use of a personal bank account, and there is an ongoing debate within the comments thread about the legality of using her own account.
Marine Parade resident William Lim, 29, for example, said while he did not mind donating to help NSP, the decision to channel the funds into Miss Seah's account did not seem "wise".
He said: "The money should go directly into an account in the name of the party for the sake of transparency".
Political Donations Act
Miss Seah seemed mindful of such concerns.
On her original post on Tuesday, she had made an appeal on social networking site Facebook and several other online forums asking for contributions to help the team pay off its campaign bills.
Miss Seah wrote: "Based on the invoices at hand to date, the Marine Parade Campaign expenses are well over $35,000 and will be borne by my teammates and I personally, as candidates.
"I am legally allowed to ask for contributions from fellow Singaporeans. Hence, do consider if you could help."
She later clarified via a Facebook post that the account was "set up solely for the purpose of ensuring that the funds are cleanly obtained".
Under the Political Donations Act, candidates are told to take note: "You should retain donations received in a separate bank account pending verification of the donor's status."
The Act also says donations can only be received from Singapore citizens above 21 Peryears old and/or companies that are incorporated in Singapore and which carry on business mainly in Singapore and controlled by Singaporeans.
In her Tuesday post, Miss Seah also clarified that the account will be shut down after the team hits its $35,000 target and excess donations will go towards offsetting funds needed for Ms Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss' Mountbatten campaign.
"I will be able to publish the bank statement in full as a show of transparency once this is over," Miss Seah noted.
According to Miss Seah's Facebook post, all donations collected will pay for, among other things, the production of fliers, posters, banners, election booklets as well as the hiring of barricades, spotlights and sound system for the Aljunied open field rally on April 28.
It is not known how much has been collected so far as Miss Seah did not respond to calls made by TNP at press time.
Similarly, The Reform Party sent out an e-mail on Thursday stating that it was asking for donations to raise $50,000 so that it "can go on for the next five years, building up our capabilities and clearing our loans" but asked that all donations be made to the party.
Opposition members going public to source for money is nothing new, said Mr PN Balji, director of the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Nanyang Technological University.
But they are also increasingly turning to the Internet to garner support and donations.
"This again arouses interest and sympathy for the opposition members... It also shows that they are underdogs. For one thing, you'll never see a People's Action Party (PAP) candidate doing this (to get donations)," he said.
Mr Balji said that concerns about the money being used properly are only natural. He said: "You have to be above board. I'm not saying Nicole Seah will take the money but in politics you must do it the proper way".
One suggestion he had was to collect the donations in the name of the party to avoid any accusations of mismanagement.
Political observer and former Nominated Member of Parliament Zulkifli Baharudin noted: "The process of organising (political events) is not as straightforward and this episode shows that (parties) are not savvy as to how they organise themselves politically".
When contacted yesterday, the party's secretary-general Goh Meng Seng admitted that the move has had "mixed reactions".
He told The New Paper (TNP): "Personally, I would refrain from using the Internet to raise funds but nobody in the party has raised any concerns".
But Mr Goh defended the move, noting that it was ultimately "public engagement using the new media."
THE Reform Party (RP) wants to raise $50,000 to help with its expansion plans for the next General Election (GE).
It said in a press release on Thursday that it is asking its supporters to donate whatever they can. That's so that the party can go on for the next five years while building its capabilities and clearing its loans.
"Although we have many enthusiastic and skilled volunteers, many critical functions require money - such as rental, repayment of loans, printing of books and fliers, specialised translation services, vehicle hire, moving of office equipment etc," the statement added.
Details on how to donate are available on the party's website.
In the two weeks since the May 7 GE, RP has already staked its claim on five constituencies that it intends to contest at the next polls.
The party has also set up regional branch committees to spearhead its efforts in the West Coast, Tanjong Pagar and Chua Chu Kang GRCs, as well as the single wards of Radin Mas and Pioneer.
