The Latest on Southeast Asia: Elections in Singapore

On May 3, Singaporeans went to the polls amid economic frustrations at home and unpredictability abroad. Many voters expressed concern about the cost of living, especially housing prices. Analysts had expected that the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), including some members of the cabinet, might face tight races because of that public discontent about bread and butter issues. But Singaporeans came out more strongly than expected for the PAP, which won 87 of 97 parliamentary seats, up from 84 in 2020. The elections granted Prime Minister Lawrence Wong a strong mandate as the PAP won 65 percent of the popular vote, up from 61 percent in the 2020 elections under former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The main opposition Worker’s Party held on to its 10 seats and increased its vote share to 15 percent from 10 percent in 2020, but failed to win any new constituencies. It will still be given two additional seats for its highest-performing unsuccessful candidates as Singaporean law mandates that Parliament must include at least 12 opposition members. The smaller Progress Singapore Party had previously held those “non-constituency” seats but fared much worse in this year’s elections, garnering less than 5 percent of the national vote. 

One of Prime Minister Wong’s next tasks is to assemble a cabinet, though emerging scandals will make that more complicated than usual. Photos have recently circulated of Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, and former education minister Ng Chee Meng dining with a convicted money launderer, Su Haijin. Ng has alsoapologized over accusations of misconduct at a Ministry of Education Dialogue in 2017 and requested that the prime minister not select him for cabinet.

The election was a litmus test for Wong and the city’s-state’s “fourth generation” of leadership, and they clearly passed. The PAP’s message of stability at home and deft policy abroad was clearly attractive to many Singaporeans. The PAP would have won with or without the unpredictability of the Trump Administration and the U.S.-China trade war, but the international environment probably helped widen the margin of victory. Now Wong and the new cabinet will have to navigate an increasingly complex global environment. A new election is not constitutionally mandated for another five years, which gives the PAP plenty of time to deliver results. 

Japhet Quitzon is an Associate Fellow for the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Gregory B. Poling is a senior fellow and director for the Southeast Asia Program and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at CSIS. 

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