In Singapore, an Election Brings Choices, Change and – Tingles

For years, elections in Singapore produced little excitement, mainly because the governing People’s Action Party (PAP) has never lost a general election in the six decades since the country won independence from Malaysia.  

It was never even close. 

However, the vote on May 3 is actually looking a little more interesting, with opposition gains over the past decade promising a different kind of governance.  

Analysts say the election will be a test for the PAP and its relatively new leader, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took over last year from Lee Hsien Loong – the son of Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew – after two decades in power. As such, it’s looking as if the party might actually have some real competition this time around. 

The PAP “faces a far more competitive landscape and by far its biggest electoral challenge yet,” wrote World Politics Review. “Yet, even if the PAP still wins a majority in the upcoming elections and continues to control the government, major opposition gains … would (still) change the political landscape in Singapore dramatically.” 

In calling the election, Wong is seeking a mandate to navigate a US-initiated global trade war that is already impacting the city-state, the wealthiest country in Asia, which is dependent on free trade for its prosperity.  

“(The world) is becoming more uncertain, unsettled and even unstable,” Wong said recently in a Facebook post. “The global conditions that enabled Singapore’s success over the past decades may no longer hold.” 

And in a stark warning to parliament recently, Wong said the “era of rules-based globalization and free trade is over,” adding that, “We risk being squeezed out, marginalized, and left behind.”  

Already, analysts have downgraded economic growth forecasts for 2025, predicting recession.  

Wong also wants a mandate to tackle Singapore’s other big issue, inflation.  

So far, he has tried to ease Singaporeans’ pain by implementing a host of measures, including cash handouts, subsidies for groceries and other necessities, energy and income tax rebates, childcare subsidies, and, for the first time, unemployment benefits – all part of his recent $109 billion budget request for 2025. 

Still, some voters say it isn’t enough, Bloomberg noted. Singapore is one of the most expensive countries in the world, and now, housing has become out of reach for some in a country that has long prided itself on its public housing programs and its extremely high homeownership rates.  

Still, the PAP is hoping that the electorate will opt for stability in turbulent times and choose the party’s candidates. However, analysts say voter dissatisfaction over kitchen-table issues such as inflation, housing, and jobs is likely to play a much larger role in their choice. 

“Elections in Singapore tend to be a domestic affair, with the focus very much on local and municipal issues that are personal to the voter and less about foreign issues,” Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore, told the South China Morning Post. “Singapore is not immune to the trade war, so the ruling party will emphasize it to the voters, but I don’t think there is substantial mileage to gain from it.” 

Instead, analysts say that voters may punish the ruling party for two hikes in the sales tax over the past two years that hit as the cost-of-living was already rising.  

The opposition, meanwhile, says that Wong is fearmongering over US tariffs and that by implementing his relief measures, he is likely to “turbocharge” inflation.  

Moreover, they add, it is necessary to have diverse voices in parliament to better represent the country of nearly six million people and serve as a check on the PAP. 

“(Singapore could be a) much better and stronger country with more balanced politics,” said Harpreet Singh, a rising star in the Workers’ Party, the country’s main opposition party, in an interview featured on a local podcast, Yah Lah BUT. “We need to have a reset where we treat our critics, people with different ideas, people from outside the system, with more respect and not suspicion.” 

Analysts say the ruling party’s popularity has dimmed in recent elections, with the opposition steadily gaining more ground in parliament: The Workers’ Party won an unprecedented six seats in 2011 and 2015, and then 10 in 2020 – the most ever won by the opposition. 

Then, the public was angry after the PAP was rocked by a series of scandals – including a senior minister’s arrest in a corruption probe, as well as the resignation of two lawmakers over an extramarital affair.  

Those threatened the squeaky-clean image of the government that Singapore has long been proud of, one that has helped win the PAP its mandates.  

And while almost no one expects the PAP to be ousted from power or even lose a large share of the vote, there are other factors helping the opposition. 

The upcoming election will have four more seats compared with the last vote in 2020, and the PAP is fielding at least 30 new candidates in the largest turnover of the PAP’s slate by a new prime minister, Agence France-Presse wrote. Also, demographics help the opposition: Younger voters are increasingly open to alternative candidates.  

Also, the young have less tolerance for the suppression of civil rights: The PAP has long been criticized for its tight government control over personal matters and a paternalistic stance toward citizens, media censorship, restrictions on free speech, the use of oppressive laws against dissidents, and the repression of the opposition through gerrymandering and other tactics. 

So far, while polling is banned in the country after an election is announced, the PAP will likely win at least 60 percent of the vote: Pollster YouGov found that 63 percent of respondents in March said they would vote for the PAP and 15 percent would back the Workers’ Party. Still, that leaves 22 percent of voters as undecided – but they will have to choose: It’s mandatory for Singapore’s 2.75 million eligible voters to cast ballots. 

Some say that regardless of the election results, Singapore’s political landscape and the country itself are already changing.  

“In Chinese tradition, the end of 60 years marks the completion of a full life cycle and symbolizes the dawn of a new beginning,” wrote Singapore’s Straits Times. “(It’s) rather fitting, then, that as Singapore celebrates its 60th year of independence in 2025, the leaders of its two largest political parties have renewal on their minds.”