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There are currently two types of elections in Singapore. Parliamentary and presidential elections. According to the Constitution of Singapore, general elections for Parliament must be conducted within three months of the dissolution of Parliament, which has a maximum term of five years from the first sitting of Parliament, and presidential elections are conducted every six years. All elections in Singapore are based on first-past-the-post voting system.
The Parliament of Singapore is unicameral with 93 seats. Since the legislative assembly election in 1959, the People's Action Party (PAP) has had an overwhelming majority, and for nearly two decades was the only political party to win any seats, and has always formed the Government of Singapore.
Singapore’s electoral process facilitates the early and rapid preliminary results through its official sample count system: at each polling station, a counting assistant randomly selects 100 ballots and records their votes. These mini-samples are then aggregated and weighted according to the total number of ballots cast at each station to generate a constituency-level projection. Using the statistical process known as the simple random sampling, the resulting estimates typically achieve a 95% confidence level within a 4–5% margin of error—striking a balance between speed and statistical reliability and giving voters and parties a fast and reliable snapshot of likely outcomes promptly after the close of poll centres, well before the full count is finalized a few hours later by the Returning Officer of the Elections Department. In contrast, countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia rely on the gradual progressive counting and reporting of actual returns: as each precinct or count center completes its tally, results are announced and gradually aggregated in real time, often supplemented by statistical models or projections by media outlets. The station-by-station transparency by other developed nation democracies (which is more granular and updates slower on evolving vote totals), is of lower speed and statistical smoothing compared to Singapore’s approach in reporting election results.
Unlike elections in other countries which are conducted by independent electoral commissions accountable to their respective national legislatures, elections in Singapore are conducted by the Elections Department Singapore (ELD), which is a department under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) of the Government of Singapore.
On polling day of general elections in Singapore (on a given Saturday), voting begins at 8am and concludes at 8pm, with the voting sample counts for all constituencies released by 11pm and the final general election results for all constituencies released by 3am the following (Sunday) morning.[1] Victory parades by elected representatives in their respective constituencies, begin at 8.30am the following (Sunday) morning.[2]
Latest Parliamentary Election[edit] Party Votes % +/– Seats Fielded Elected NCMP +/− People's Action Party 1,564,770 65.57 +4.34 97 87 0 4 Workers' Party 357,763 14.99 +3.77 26 10 2 2 Progress Singapore Party 116,607 4.89 −5.29 13 0 0 2 Red Dot United 94,566 3.96 +2.71 15 0 0 0 Singapore Democratic Party 88,858 3.72 −0.73 11 0 0 0 People's Alliance for Reform 59,879 2.51 New 13 0 0 New Singapore Democratic Alliance 29,109 1.22 −0.27 4 0 0 0 Singapore People's Party 28,029 1.17 −0.35 5 0 0 0 Singapore United Party 15,811 0.66 New 5 0 0 New People's Power Party 15,494 0.65 −0.35 10 0 0 0 Independents 12,445 0.52 +0.49 2 0 0 0 National Solidarity Party 3,121 0.13 −3.62 10 0 0 0 Total 2,386,452 100.00 – 211 97 2 0 Valid votes 2,386,452 98.24 Invalid/blank votes 42,829 1.76 Total votes 2,429,281 100.00 Registered voters/turnout 2,627,026 92.47 Source: calculation based on https://www.eld.gov.sg/finalresults2025.html Parliamentary elections[edit]From Singapore's independence in 1965, to 1981, the People's Action Party (PAP) won every single seat in every election held, forming a parliament with no elected opposition MP for almost two decades. In Singapore, opposition politicians and trade unionists were detained in prison without trial before the 1960s and early 1970s. Many such as Lim Chin Siong, Said Zahari and Lim Hock Siew were accused by the government of being involved in subversive communist struggles. Other oppositions had also rendered ineligible due to conviction, including those who went bankrupt.[3] Catherine Lim argues that a climate of fear hurts Singapore.[4][5]
In the eighties, opposition politicians began being elected in parliament with J. B. Jeyaretnam and Chiam See Tong, along with the creation of two schemes in the eighties: the Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) scheme awarding to the candidates with the best result among non-elected oppositions in the eighties, and a group of nonpartisans collectively known as Nominated Member of Parliament. Further amendments resulted in a minimum quota of number of oppositions to determine the number of NCMPs, from three members to nine in 2010s, then to 12 in 2020s.
The 1988 elections introduced the Group Representation Constituency (GRC), a plurality General ticket voting system for a team of between three and six candidates, to improve the ethnicity representation in Parliament and town council management; certain analysis crititized the scheme as a form of gerrymandering to reduce opposition representation,[6] most notably where teams in a GRC had been elected uncontested on consecutive elections.[7] In each election leading up to nominations, the Elections Department, determines electoral boundaries without the need of parliamentary approval, was established as part of the executive branch under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), rather than as an independent body;[8][9] analysists also criticize the process of electoral engineering, whereas poll results would determine whether if the constituency with a poor result would be redistricted to neighbouring constituencies,[10] though that the ELD decline to reveal the reasons of redistriction except for population increase in planning areas and electorate balancing.[11] In one notable scenario, both Cheng San and Eunos GRC were examples of constituencies dissolved by the Elections Department after opposition parties gained ground in elections, with voters redistributed to other constituencies; similarly, Bukit Batok and Yuhua were also absorbed into neighbouring GRCs due to a close result, though they were returned to SMCs after years of absence.[9]
However, Freedom House has noted that elections in Singapore are technically free of electoral fraud.[12] Throughout the history of the Republic of Singapore, hundreds of politicians have been elected in Parliament, of whom majority of unique candidates represent the governing People's Action Party including late stalwarts like Lee Khoon Choy.[13] Since 1965, 19 opposition politicians have been elected into Parliament, including J. B. Jeyaretnam, Chiam See Tong, Low Thia Khiang, Ling How Doong, Cheo Chai Chen, Chen Show Mao, Yaw Shin Leong, Png Eng Huat, Lee Li Lian, and also ten incumbent candidates from the Workers' Party including Secretary-general and opposition leader Pritam Singh, as well as the Chairwoman and first female MP-elect Sylvia Lim and first Malay MP-elect Faisal Manap.
2020 general election[edit]A general election was called on 23 June 2020,[14] with Singaporeans electing their Members of Parliament (MPs) on 10 July 2020.[15]
Party Votes % +/– Seats +/– People's Action Party 1,527,491 61.23 –8.63 83 0 Workers' Party 279,922 11.22 –1.26 10 +4 Progress Singapore Party 253,996 10.18 New 2 New Singapore Democratic Party 111,054 4.45 +0.92 0 0 National Solidarity Party 93,653 3.75 +0.22 0 0 Peoples Voice 59,183 2.37 New 0 New Reform Party 54,599 2.19 –0.44 0 0 Singapore People's Party 37,998 1.52 –0.65 0 0 Singapore Democratic Alliance 37,237 1.49 –0.57 0 0 Red Dot United 31,260 1.25 New 0 New People's Power Party 7,489 0.30 –0.83 0 0 Independents 655 0.03 –0.09 0 0 Total 2,494,537 100.00 – 95 +6 Valid votes 2,494,537 98.20 Invalid/blank votes 45,822 1.80 Total votes 2,540,359 100.00 Registered voters/turnout 2,651,435 95.81 Source: Singapore Elections Presidential elections[edit]Presidential elections have been held since 1993. Under the "Presidential Elections Act",[16] to run for president, one must obtain a "Certificate of Eligibility" from the Presidential Elections Committee. These conditions are:
Because of the stringent requirements needed to run for presidential elections, only three out of the seven elections had contests (1993, 2011 and 2023), while the rest were walkovers. An amendment to the Constitution in 2016 saw the 2017 election become reserved for a certain community (Malay community in the case), resulting in that year's election to cause a walkover as well. To date, 10 candidates had awarded the Certificate of Eligibility (with two being eligible twice), of which five candidates were president-elect (only one candidate, S. R. Nathan, had served for two terms and had no prior affiliation with the incumbent ruling People's Action Party)
A referendum may also be held for important national issues, although it has been held only once in Singapore's political history for the 1962 merger referendum. Calls for a national referendum has been made since then, including the issue over the building of casinos in Singapore.
Legislative Council elections[edit] Legislative Assembly elections[edit] As State of Malaysia[edit] Parliamentary elections[edit] Upcoming elections[edit]RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
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