Think Centre, whose actitivies include research, publishing and organising political events, said they would put forward four candidates for the group representation constituency (GRC) in Singapore's Jalan Besar area.

Author and political scientist James Gomez, post-graduate student David Foo and company employees Zulfikar Mohd Shariff and Yaw Shin Leong would be fielded as candidates, the centre said in a statement.

A fifth candidate, who was not identified, would stand as reserve, it said.

The government on Mar 30 gazetted Think Centre and another civil rights group, the Open Singapore Centre, as political associations with effect from April 1, effectively barring them from accepting foreign donations.

They were the first groups to be formally registered as such under the newly passed Political Donations Act aimed at preventing foreign participation in domestic politics.

"This decision by the government to gazette the Centre under the Political Donations Act has led Think Centre to release a working proposal to field its own candidates in the upcoming election," the group said.

"Its purpose is to create discussion and participation of civil society in Singapore's electoral and political process at the national level."

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said last week he was planning to hold the general election either in the second half of this year or first half of next year, well ahead of the original schedule for August 2002.

Think Centre on Mar 31 unveiled an eight-point "pro-Singaporean" platform on which to anchor its campaign.

This includes a call for tighter regulations on foreigners working in Singapore, greater subsidies for health care and education and a review to shorten national service currently at two years for all able-bodied men.

Officials of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), which has dominated elections here for decades, have belittled threats posed by opposition parties. PAP holds all but three of the 92 seats in parliament.