2001 General Election
The SDA fielded 13 candidates in two Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) and three Single Member Constituencies (SMCs), and secured 12.0% of the votes cast in the general election.
The SDA's Chairman, Chiam See Tong, became the first (and to date only) MP elected under the SDA banner when he was re-elected as MP for Potong Pasir. (He had previously been elected as a Singapore People's Party representative in 1997, and as a Singapore Democratic Party representative in 1984, 1988 and 1991.)
SDA member Steve Chia (the leader of the National Solidarity Party) also entered Parliament as a non-constituency MP after securing 34.6% of the votes in the constituency of Chua Chu Kang, which was the highest percentage of the vote secured by a losing opposition candidate at the election.
The result made Chiam the de facto leader of the opposition in Parliament, as the SDA had two representatives (Chiam and Chia), whereas the only other opposition party represented in Parliament (the Worker's Party) had only one (Hougang MP Low Thia Khiang).
Read more about this topic: Singapore Democratic Alliance
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