Singapore Stays the Course
Lee Kuan Yew’s People’s Action Party grew its share in the city-state’s parliament, continuing a 60-year run.
In its first Singaporean parliamentary election since the election of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in 2024, the People’s Action Party (PAP) won a decisive victory Saturday, capturing 87 seats in the city-state’s 97-seat Parliament. The election was seen as a comment on Wong’s popularity after the 53-year-old bureaucrat succeeded Singapore’s third prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, who had governed the island for two decades.
“Singaporeans have given the PAP a clear and strong mandate to govern,” Wong, a American-trained economist, said following the election. “The results will put Singapore in a better position to face this turbulent world. Many are watching the elections closely, whether it’s international media, investors or foreign governments, they will have taken note of tonight’s results. It’s a clear signal of trust, stability and confidence in your government.”
PAP, which has ruled Singapore since the nation’s inception in 1965 when the country gained its independence from Great Britain, won a significant majority in the Parliament behind campaign promises of economic stability and ideological continuity. Wong, the nation’s fourth prime minister, becomes the first to increase the party’s vote share following a change in prime minister.
Writing on X Saturday, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, congratulated Wong’s party with a nod to the future. “We greatly value our excellent cooperation with Singapore,” wrote von der Leyen. “Our partnership is deepening, in trade and investment, and also defence, security, innovation.”
PAP’s landslide victory gives Singapore’s ruling party a clear mandate heading into the future. Of the nearly 3 million people registered to vote on the island, more than 65 percent of voters selected PAP, giving the ruling party its 14th consecutive win for PAP since independence. The vote perpetuates Singapore’s system of a one-party state with government control of industry.
The center-left Workers’ Party, which ran on a platform of delivering housing and economic relief, won 15 percent of the vote total and captured 10 of the 97 seats up for grabs. No other opposition party won more than 5 percent of the vote and the National Solidarity Party recorded its lowest vote total in history. Despite reported opposition to PAP’s rule in the lead up to the election, including an explosive op-ed penned by the son of Singapore’s founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, in the New York Times, voters selected Singapore’s ruling party by an overwhelming majority.
The campaign window for the nation’s election lasted only nine days, making it one of the world’s shortest. In the lead up to Saturday’s vote, Wong’s government ordered Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta to remove several posts on Facebook which Wong claimed were made by foreign actors associated with the Islamist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party in an attempt to spread misinformation ahead of the election.
Despite concerns of rising inflation on the island and the brewing trade war between the U.S. and China, Singapore’s global outlook on trade and growth has turned the tiny city-state into an economic powerhouse. Wong emphasized the need for competent governance at a time of upheaval and repeatedly told voters that the PAP put citizens in the best position to “steer Singapore through the storm.”
“The results will put Singapore in a better position to face this turbulent world,” Wong said after votes were counted on Sunday.
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