After Parliament dissolved, Singaporeans will go to the polls on May 3

Nomination Day will be on April 23, giving candidates the minimum nine days of campaigning before Cooling-off Day on May 2.

The date of the election – Lawrence Wong’s first as Prime Minister and secretary-general of the ruling PAP – was announced on April 15. It came an hour after President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, dissolved Singapore’s 14th Parliament and issued the Writ of Election.

The country will elect 97 MPs in 33 constituencies – 18 group representation constituencies and 15 single-member seats. There will be nine nomination centres.

The Returning Officer for this election is Han Kok Juan, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. He replaces Tan Meng Dui, who held the post for the 2020 General Election.

For voters, one consideration will be the looming uncertainty presented by the world’s two largest economies – the US and China – as they lurch towards a trade war.

In a world that is in transition to a completely different, new global order, Singaporeans will have to decide on the team they trust to navigate the storm and chart the way forward for the nation, PM Wong has said.

Singapore’s 14th election since independence will see the PAP contest all 97 seats in 33 constituencies, and likely be challenged for all of them.

The ruling party will field more than 30 new faces – its largest slate in recent years.

It will face another tough fight from opposition parties, which have gained ground over the years on the back of bigger appetites for greater political checks and balances, as well as more alternative voices in Parliament.

In 2020, the PAP was returned to power with 61.23 % of the vote, but lost a second GRC – Sengkang – to the WP. Party chief Pritam Singh was subsequently appointed Leader of the Opposition.

The WP will likely seek to win over 30 seats in the east. Besides defending its Hougang single seat and the nine seats in Aljunied and Sengkang GRCs, the WP looks set to contest another five constituencies, including the new Punggol GRC.

In the West, the Progress Singapore Party will field candidates in at least five constituencies. Its A-team is expected to run in West Coast-Jurong West GRC – an amalgamation of the existing West Coast GRC and parts of neighbouring Jurong GRC.

In the 2020 General Election, the PSP team, led by party founder and chairman Tan Cheng Bock, won 48.32 % of the vote in West Coast. It was the PAP’s narrowest victory.

Smaller opposition parties have also staked overlapping claims on the ground in between. This sets the stage for multi-cornered fights in several areas, unless parties can come to a consensus soon.

In the past few years, bread-and-butter issues – the cost of living, job security and the continued affordability of public housing – have dominated the national conversation.

Inflation peaked in 2022 at 6.1 %, but moderated the following year to 4.8 %, before coming down further in 2024 to 2.4 %. Recent Budgets have seen PM Wong, who is also Finance Minister, roll out extensive measures to soften the bite of higher prices. The question is whether external events, such as renewed American tariffs, will spark off a fresh round of global price hikes.

Resident employment rose in 2024, a turnaround from the previous year’s decline. But graduates fresh out of university also found it harder to find full-time jobs, and retrenchments ticked up in the last quarter.

In response to job jitters, resources have been pumped into the SkillsFuture movement to help workers adapt to changing industry demands, with a new scheme launched to support those who have lost their jobs and are making efforts to bounce back.

The prices of resale Housing Board flats went up after a pandemic-induced supply crunch, with a small but growing number of flats transacting at a million dollars or more. Following efforts to ramp up supply and cool the market, both public and private housing prices showed early signs of moderation in the first quarter of 2025.

Political scandals that shook parties on both sides of the aisle could also cast a long shadow at the ballot box. They include two extramarital affairs, the arrest of former Cabinet minister S. Iswaran after a Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau probe, and a trial involving Mr Singh, who was charged with lying to a parliamentary committee.

Iswaran pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months’ jail.

Singh was found guilty after a 13-day trial and fined, but is appealing against his sentence, which does not affect his eligibility to stand for election.

Linette Lai

The Straits Times

Asia News Network