Singapore calls snap September general election

Despite a slowing economy the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled for more than 50 years thanks to strict political controls and Singaporeans’ rising affluence, is expected to keep its overwhelming majority in parliament against a fragmented opposition.

The recent 50th anniversary celebrations of Singapore’s founding, which culminated in a televised parade on August . 9, have generated a strong sense of national pride, which could shore up support for Mr. Lee and the PAP.

The Electoral Boundaries Review Committee has drawn 89 seats from Singapore’s 29 constituencies.

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.

The legacy of Lee Kuan Yew, who died on March 23 and who oversaw the city-state’s rapid rise from a British colonial backwater to a global trade and financial center, is also fresh in the minds of voters.

An estimated 2.46 million eligible voters – up from 2.35 million in 2011 – will head to the polls.

The timing of the election isn’t a surprise, said Gillian Koh, senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

“I called this general election to seek your mandate to take Singapore beyond SG50 (50 years of Independence), into its next half century”, Lee said on his Facebook page.

Of the current 86 elected members of parliament excluding the elder Lee, 79 are PAP lawmakers and the rest from the Workers’ Party. The other parties are expected to contest up to 11 seats each. We will surely meet challenges ahead, but whatever the world throws at us, as one people, we will overcome.

“You will be determining the future for Singapore”.

“I would say this would be the watershed election after independence because we will see whether Singapore moves in a definitive manner towards a two-party system”, said analyst Eugene Tan, an associate law professor at the Singapore Management University. Another 50 years. And Singapore has to stay special, because, if we are just a tiresome little spot on the map, a smudge, we are going to count for nothing.