SINGAPORE, Jan. 22 -- The office of Singapore's Leader of the Opposition (LO) will remain vacant after the Workers' Party (WP) said it was "unable to accept" Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's invitation to nominate a new leader for the post, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) confirmed.

The political standoff began on January 15 when PM Wong removed WP chief Pritam Singh as the LO, citing Pritam's recent court conviction for lying to Parliament and a subsequent parliamentary motion that found him unsuitable for the role, The Straits Times reported.

In a statement, the WP argued that the only "tenable candidate" for the LO position is the leader of the largest opposition party in Parliament - in this case, Pritam. As such, the party said it ...