Singapore - Politics

In 1990 Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of the People’s Action Party (PAP) was succeeded by his former deputy Goh Chok Tong, who called elections in August 1991 and was returned to power, though with a reduced majority. In 1991 the presidency was made elective. Ong Teng Cheong won the first presidential election, held in 1993, and S R Nathan was the only candidate in the second presidential poll in August 1999.

The opposition parties are the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), the Workers’ Party (WP), the National Solidarity Party (NS), the Singapore Justice Party (SJP), the Singapore Malay National Organisation (SMNO) and the Singapore People’s Party (SPP).

The PAP won the general election of January 1997 taking 66% of the total vote, a 4% increase on its share in 1991. The prime minister, the two deputy prime ministers, the senior minister (former PM Lee) and many other ministers were returned unopposed. The SDP took no seats, while the SPP held its one seat with a decreased majority. The WP held its one seat with an increased majority, and its leader J B Jeyaretnam was offered a non-constituency seat.

In an early general election in November 2001, the electorate gave the PAP a decisive endorsement, when it took 82 of the 84 elected seats with 75% of the votes, 9% more than in 1997. The WP and the four-party Singapore Democratic Alliance each won one seat.

In August 2004 Goh Chok Tong was succeeded by Lee Hsien Loong, son of Lee Kuan Yew and deputy prime minister since 1990.

In August 2005, when the election committee again found there to be only one eligible presidential candidate, S R Nathan was declared re-elected.

The PAP was again returned with 82 seats in the May 2006 election and received 67% of the votes. Opposition parties contested 47 seats, and it was the first time more than half the seats were contested.