Singapore To Have Election Soon

Lee, who will be announcing the election date very soon, said in his National Day Rally speech that many people in their 60s have said that they want to work longer, and the tripartite partners have reached an agreement to pass legislation to raise the re-employment age from 65 to 67 by 2017.

It will be the first election without the prime minister’s hugely influential father, independence leader Lee Kuan Yew who died in March.

Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam on Tuesday directed that a general election shall be held on September 11 to elect the island city-state’s 13th parliament and a new government for the next five years, media reported.

According to the law, 11 September will be made a public holiday.

He has been prime minister since 2004.

“I called this general election to seek your mandate to take Singapore beyond SG50, into its next half century”, Lee said on his Facebook page, referring to Singapore’s 50th birthday.

Lee, 63, called the upcoming election “critical” as it will allow him to choose the team that will lead the country for the next two decades.

Singapore celebrated 50 years of independence on August 9 with a massive parade which highlighted its rapid economic development and stability under PAP rule.

The opposition Workers’ Party now holds the other seven seats.

Singapore has also developed a bond between the government and its people, said Mr Lee, adding that the government “has kept its promises” and has kept its politics honest. “Foreign workers are also needed to build homes (mostly working in the construction sector)”, the Channel News Asia quoted Lee as saying.

The curbs on foreign workers cut inflows to 26,000 a year ago, excluding domestic helpers.

The influx remains a source of tension, with middle-class Singaporeans complaining that the newcomers are competing with them for jobs and housing and straining public services like mass transport. The PAP won 81 of the 87 seats contested with a total vote share of 60.1 per cent. The Workers’ Party (WP) took Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC with 54.7 per cent and 64.8 per cent respectively.