Singapore's ruling party yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that signaled continuity in the city-state's trademark mix of economic success, social stability and tight political controls.
The final results of Saturday's elections showed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's (
The breakdown of seats, with two for the opposition, is unchanged from the outgoing parliament.
PHOTO: EPA
The result was widely expected, but the percentage of votes won by the ruling party dropped to 66.6 percent from 75.3 percent in the last election in 2001, indicating that more Singaporeans want new voices in government.
The PAP has won every general election since Singapore became independent in 1965, bolstered by its transformation of the resource-scarce former British colony into one of Asia's richest, most stable societies.
The state's sharp limits on speech and assembly have undercut the struggling opposition, and ruling party leaders have sidelined some opponents with defamation suits that have rendered them bankrupt, making them ineligible for office.
Lee said yesterday that voters had rejected an opposition "more interested in impressing foreign supporters," referring to a low vote count for the Singapore Democratic Party of Chee Soon Juan (
Chee is a frequent critic of the government's tight controls on free speech.
The vote was the first electoral test of the 54-year-old Lee's popularity since the son of national founder and former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (
"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Lee said. "I want also to continue to encourage open, serious debate on issues because neither the PAP nor the government, nor, may I say, the opposition, has all the solutions and answers to all the questions and problems."
Since assuming power in 2004, Lee has promised a more open society. Critics say little has changed since the time his father ran the country from independence until 1990.
Ruling party leaders had dismissed suggestions that politics in Singapore amounted to one-party rule, saying they would welcome a vigorous contest with a credible opposition. They called many of the current opposition figures inexperienced or incompetent.
Lee, who said some Singa-poreans may have voted for the opposition because of rising costs, had campaigned on a pledge not to leave behind the poor, the elderly and the unemployed.
Opposition leaders said they had put up a good fight.
"We are not thinking that we are going to overthrow the government overnight," said Glenda Han (
"People are sitting up and looking at the opposition in a more positive light," she said.
Many Singaporeans view the PAP as the safest choice, and its candidates said constituencies that vote for them will get priority in government funds for housing upgrades and other benefits.
Some people, especially among the younger generation, say they want more public debate and a loosening of controls.
Candidates for the opposition highlighted a growing income disparity between the rich and poor in the city-state of 4.3 million, where some people struggle financially despite the country's status as a high-tech, manufacturing hub.
The local media, which rarely deviates from the government line, devoted blanket coverage to the election.
"PM gets his strong mandate," ran the banner headline in the Straits Times newspaper. The daily featured 18 pages of election news.
The widely circulated tabloid Today said there were "82 reasons to smile," a reference to the PAP securing 82 parliamentary seats.
Lee has acknowledged his party was unlikely to match the 75 percent mandate it secured in 2001 when an economic recession and the threat of terrorist attacks saw the electorate rally behind his predecessor.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion