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Voting for parliamentary elections will be held in Singapore today. The main contest in this election has been between the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the major opposition party workers party (WP) since 1965. Apart from these two, many other small parties are also in the fray. The result of this election may come on 4 May.
Voting will be done for 97 parliamentary seats in 33 constituencies of Singapore. These include single member Constituency (SMC) and Group Representation Constituency (GRC). In GRC, a team of 4-5 candidates contest the election, in which it is necessary to have a candidate of at least one minority community (Malay, Indian, or others).
Prominent contenders for PM post
Lawrence Wing: On May 15, 2024, Laws was replaced by Lee Scene Loong, Lawrence Wong took over the Prime Minister of Singapore. He is also the General Secretary of PAP. Prior to this, he has held the responsibility of Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He gained a lot of popularity due to decisions and economic policies taken at the time of Kovid-19.
Heng Sweet Insect: Is the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore. He is the senior leader of Pap. Heng was earlier considered a strong contender, but in 2021 he distanced himself from the race for the post of Prime Minister for health reasons. If Lawrence Wong retreats for some reason, Heng Sweet insect can become the major candidate.
Pritam Singh: Pritam Singh, the chief of the Workers Party, is also a major face in Singapore politics, but the possibility of his becoming Prime Minister is negligible, as his party is contesting only 26 seats. In the leadership of Pritam Singh of Indian origin, the Workers Party won 10 seats in a strong performance in the last election.
This year February, his name was engulfed in controversies when a Singapore court convicted him in two cases of lying in Parliament. For this, two fine of $ 5,220 were also imposed on him.
Only Pap is contesting all seats
11 parties are participating in the election, but only PAP is contesting all 97 seats. While the Workers Party is contesting for only 26 seats. Only six parties are contesting in more than 10 seats.
In the 2020 general election, voting was held for a total of 93 seats, in which PAP won 83 seats, got 61.24% votes. While the Workers Party won 10 seats.
Economic development, employment, rising inflation, health, education and minority community share in this time elections are a major issue.
Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Sweet is the senior leader of Pap.
Voting in Singapore is a civil duty
Voting is mandatory for all citizens above 21 years of age in Singapore. A total of 95.81% polling was held in the 2020 election. This time too, it is expected that voting percentage will be quite high, as voting in Singapore is considered civil duty.
Singapore uses the First-Past-The-Post System, with the highest number of votes winning candidates.
Trying to woo Indian community PM Wong has taken several steps to woo the Indian community. He said some time ago that the story of the Indian community is part of the story of Singapore. On the other hand, the focus of the opposition party WP is on enticing young voters and urban middle class.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced last month that his PAP party would field candidates of Indian origin in this election. This step has been taken to recognize the contribution of the Indian community and increase their participation.
PAP did not field any new candidate of Indian origin in the 2020 election, after which many questions were raised about it. Among the population of Singapore, people of Indian origin are 7.5%, while 75% of Chinese origin and 15% of Malay origin are people.
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