As a former British colony, Singapore's political system is based on the Westminster parliamentary system. The largest party in the unicameral legislature, Parliament, forms the government, and its leader becomes the prime minister, who is the head of government. The popularly elected and non-partisan president is the head of state, and mainly performs ceremonial duties, though he/she holds important reserve powers. The current president is Halimah Yacob, and the prime minister is Lee Hsien Loong of the People's Action Party (PAP). However, following amendments to the Constitution of Singapore, the 2017 election was the first to be reserved for a particular racial group under a hiatus-triggered model. The reserved racial group were the minority Malay community, who had not held the presidential office since 1970.
As of 2020, Parliament comprises 104 members. 93 members of parliament (MPs) represent Singapore's 31 electoral constituencies, which are split between 14 single member constituencies (SMCs), which elect one MP each, and 17 group representation constituencies, which elect between four to six MPs. Elected MPs also run town councils, which maintain public housing estates. Two members are non-constituency MPs (NCMPs), the best performing candidates in a general election who did not win a seat and are typically from the opposition parties. Nine members are nominated MPs (NMPs), who are non-partisan. Debates are presided over by the speaker, whose job is to impartially chair parliamentary sittings, however past speakers have all been members of the ruling PAP. The current speaker is Tan Chuan-Jin of the PAP, as the previous Speaker, Halimah Yacob stepped down in order to be elected President.
Since Singapore's independence in 1965, the PAP has formed the government after every election. From 1966 to 1981, it held a monopoly in Parliament. It still dominates Singapore politics today often holding super-majorities, and as of the 2020 General election, holds 83 seats in Parliament. The Workers' Party (WP) comes in at second place, with 10 elected MPs representing the Hougang SMC, Aljunied, and the recently-established Sengkang GRC. Due to the lack of strong parliamentary opposition in Singapore's history, the post of leader of the opposition is not institutionalized. However, the title of 'unofficial leader of the opposition' has been applied to the leader of the largest opposition party in parliament at various times. However, as of the 2020 GE, with the opposition making major inroads into Parliament by capturing two GRCs, Lee Hsien Loong announced that he would be formally conferring the title of Leader of the Opposition to Pritam Singh.
Political Parties
- The People's Action Party (PAP): The foremost party in Singapore's independence movement from the 1950s to the early 1960s, the PAP was founded in 1954 and swept to a landslide victory in the 1959 General Elections. Despite experiencing a serious party split when the party's left-wingers left to form the Barisan Sosialis (Socialist Front in Malay), it has never lost control of the government since it first gained power. As it is a cadre party, the secretary-general is the leader of the party. The PAP's first secretary-general was Lee Kuan Yew, who was succeeded by Goh Chok Tong. It is now led by Lee Hsien Loong, eldest son of Kuan Yew.
- The Workers' Party (WP): The foremost opposition party in Singapore politics today. Its leader, J.B. Jeyaretnam, broke the PAP's monopoly on parliamentary seats in 1981 when he won a by-election. Today, it has ten seats in Parliament, five of which represent Aljunied GRC, the first GRC to be represented by an opposition party, in addition to holding the Hougang SMC and the newly-established Sengkang GRC with four seats. It is also a cadre party and is currently led by its secretary-general, Pritam Singh, who succeeded party veteran Low Thia Khiang in 2018.
- The Progress Singapore Party (PSP): A newly established political party founded in 2019, by former PAP member Tan Cheng Bock. On the 24th of June 2020, the current PM Lee Hsien Loong's younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang joined the party. Despite not gaining any seats, as a result of being the best performing candidates in the 2020 election, two of its members were offered NMCP seats in Parliament.
- The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP): Founded on 6th August 1980 by Chiam See Tong, who as Secretary-General became the party's first Member of Parliament (MP) in 1984 when he was elected as MP for Potong Pasir. At the 1991 general election, the party's best-ever performance, two further SDP members, Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen, were elected to Parliament giving the party a total of three MPs. However, Chiam fell out with the party's Central Executive Committee in 1993 and subsequently left the party in December 1996. He was succeeded by Chee Soon Juan, who has remained the Secretary-General since the SDP's Ordinary Party Conference in 1995.
- The Reform Party (RP): Founded on 3rd July 2008, by opposition veteran and lawyer J.B. Jeyaretnam (formerly known as Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam), notable as the former Secretary-General of the Workers' Party of Singapore and the first opposition candidate in post-independence Singapore. Around three months after the party's foundation, founder Jeyaretnam died on 30 September, and the leadership has since taken over by his son, Kenneth Jeyaretnam.
- The Singapore People's Party (SPP): Founded on 21st November 1994 by Sin Kek Tong, formerly a member of the Singapore Democratic Party. Its secretary-general since 2019 is Steve Chia Kiah Hong.
- The Red Dot United (RDU): Founded on 26th May 2020, by two former members of the PSP Ravi Philemon and Michelle Lee.
- The National Solidarity Party (NSP): Founded in 1987, and joined the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) political grouping in 2001, before withdrawing from the alliance in 2007. To date, no member of the party has won an election to claim a constituency seat in Parliament, although one member, the party's then Secretary-General, Steve Chia, was elected as a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament NCMPs from 2001 to 2006.
- The People's Power Party (PPP): Founded on 16th July 2015, by former WP member Goh Meng Seng.
- The People's Voice (PV): Founded in October 2018 by former NSP Secretary-General Lim Tean.
- The Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA): The alliance was initially a four-party coalition, which consists of the SPP (which adopted the party's logo at the time), as well as the National Solidarity Party (NSP), the Singapore Justice Party (SJP) and the Singapore Malay National Organization (PKMS). The alliance of four parties contested in both the 2001 and 2006 elections. It was the first coalition in post-independence since 1963, after the now-defunct Singapore Alliance Party. After the 2006 elections, the NSP and SPP withdrew from the alliance, the NSP in hopes of rejuvenating its party and the SPP due to disagreements.
