Parliamentary Elections in Singapore - Past Elections and Latest Election

Past Elections and Latest Election

With effect from 3 June 1959, Singapore was granted full internal self-government by the British Government and became known as the State of Singapore. For the first time, Singapore had a fully elected Legislative Assembly. At the 1959 general election held on 30 May that year to give effect to the new constitution, the People's Action Party (PAP) led by Lee Kuan Yew swept into power with 43 out of 51 seats in the Assembly. Since then, the PAP has retained power and formed the Government through successive elections, and Singapore's merger with Malaysia in 1963 and full independence in 1965. In the 1968 general election, the PAP was returned unopposed in all except seven of the 58 constituencies, and won the remaining seats with 84% of the popular vote. Thereafter, every seat in Parliament was held by a PAP MP until Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam of the Workers' Party of Singapore won a 1981 by-election in the Anson constituency. Jeyaretnam retained his seat at the following general election in 1984, at which Chiam See Tong of the Singapore Democratic Party was also elected as representative of Potong Pasir. Between 1984 and 2011, the number of elected parliamentary seats held by opposition parties fluctuated between one (after the 1988 election) and four (1991 election).

The PAP's share of the vote fell to its lowest since 1965 at the latest general election in 2011, where it was 60.1%. For the first time, an opposition party – the Workers' Party – captured a GRC. It ended up securing one seat through Hougang SMC and five through Aljunied GRC, limiting the PAP's majority to 81 out of 87 seats.