Editing People's Action Party (section)

===Central Executive Committee and Secretary-General===
Political power in the party is concentrated in the CEC, led by the secretary-general. The secretary-general of the PAP is the leader of the party. Due to PAP's electoral victories in every general election since 1959, the [[prime minister of Singapore]] has been by convention the secretary-general of the PAP since 1959. Key appointments in the CEC are usually Cabinet members.

From 1957 onward, the rules laid down that the outgoing CEC should recommend a list of candidates from which the cadre members can then vote for the next CEC. This has recently changed so that the CEC nominates eight members and the party caucus selects the remaining ten.

Historically, the position of Secretary-General was not considered for the office of Prime Minister, but rather the Central Executive Committee held an election to choose the prime minister. There was a contest between PAP Secretary-General [[Lee Kuan Yew]] and PAP Treasurer [[Ong Eng Guan]], prior to 1959. Lee subsequently won the leadership and was inaugurated as the first prime minister of Singapore.<ref>{{cite news|title=Lee Kuan Yew elected as Prime Minister of Singapore|url=http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20090910-166931.html|newspaper=AsiaOne|access-date=16 December 2012|date=10 September 2009|archive-date=14 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110214001920/http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20090910-166931.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>