Editing Politics of Singapore (section)

==Elections and political parties==
{{elect|List of political parties in Singapore|Elections in Singapore}}
Voting has been [[compulsory voting|compulsory]] in Singapore since 1959<ref>{{cite web | title=Singapore voter turnout | work=International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance website | url=http://www.idea.int/vt/country_view.cfm?CountryCode=SG | access-date=22 April 2006 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051015072235/http://www.idea.int/vt/country_view.cfm?CountryCode=SG | archive-date=15 October 2005}}</ref> and there is [[universal suffrage]]. The legal voting age is 21. The Elections Department of Singapore is responsible for the planning, preparation and conduct of presidential and parliamentary elections and of any national referendum in Singapore. It is a department under the Prime Minister's Office.

Paper [[ballot]]s are still used in Singapore. However, there is a concern that voting secrecy might be compromised<ref>{{cite news|title=Man caught man lying about S R Nathan claims he did vote for the ex-President, but not at ballot box|url=http://www.theindependent.sg/man-caught-man-lying-about-s-r-nathan-claims-he-did-vote-for-the-ex-president-but-not-at-ballot-box/|access-date=30 December 2017|work=The Independent}}</ref> as ballot papers have serial numbers on them. As stated in the Elections Department website:<ref>{{cite web | title=Ballot Secrecy | work=Elections Department of Singapore website | url=http://www.elections.gov.sg/secrecy.htm | access-date=22 April 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060326214623/http://www.elections.gov.sg/secrecy.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 26 March 2006}}</ref>

: ballot papers can be examined only under strict conditions, and there are safeguards that make it extremely difficult to find out how any particular voter voted. After the count, all ballot papers and their counterfoils have to be sealed in the Supreme Court vault for six months, after which all the ballot papers and other election documents are destroyed. During those six months, these documents can only be retrieved by court order. The court will issue such an order only if it is satisfied that a vote has been fraudulently cast and the result of the election may be affected as a result. Our courts have issued no such order since elections have been held here since 1948.

=== Major political parties in Singapore ===

==== People's Action Party ====
The PAP has been the dominant political party in Singapore, re-elected continuously since 1959. It is headed by [[Lee Hsien Loong]], who succeeded [[Goh Chok Tong]]. Goh's predecessor [[Lee Kuan Yew]] served as Singapore's prime minister from independence through 1990. Since stepping down as prime minister, Lee remained influential as [[Senior Minister of Singapore|Senior Minister]] and [[Minister Mentor]].

PAP has held the overwhelming majority of seats in parliament since 1966 when the opposition [[Barisan Sosialis Party]] resigned from parliament and left the PAP as the sole representative party. PAP won all of the seats in an expanding parliament in the general elections of 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980. PAP's share of the popular vote in contested seats declined from 78% in 1980 to 65% in 1997. However, the elections of 2001 saw the party's share of the popular vote climb to 75%, winning 82 of the 84 seats. The [[2006 Singapore general election]] marked the first time since 1988 the PAP did not return to power on nomination day, with the opposition parties fielding candidates in over half of the constituencies. Overall PAP saw its share of the vote fall to 66.6%.

The dominance of the PAP, often to the extent that there is no effective and significant opposition for decades, has led to Singapore being described as a ''[[de facto]]'' [[one-party state]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huat |first=Chua Beng |date=December 2010 |title=The cultural logic of a capitalist single-party state, Singapore |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790.2010.518347 |journal=Postcolonial Studies |language=en |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=335–350 |doi=10.1080/13688790.2010.518347 |s2cid=143497465 |issn=1368-8790}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://library.fes.de/fulltext/iez/01361inf.htm |title=Electoral politics in Southeast & East Asia |author=Yeo Lay Hwee |date=2002 |publisher=Friedrich Ebert Stiftung |others=Gabriele Bruns, Aurel Croissant, Marei John |isbn=981-04-6020-1 |oclc=223396951 |chapter=Electoral Politics in Singapore |chapter-url=https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/01361007.pdf}}</ref>

==== Worker's Party ====
The [[Workers' Party (Singapore)|Workers' Party (WP)]], established in 1957 by [[David Marshall (Singaporean politician)|David Marshall]], is one of Singapore's most prominent opposition parties. Known for its steadfast commitment to parliamentary democracy, the WP has played a key role in providing alternative political voices in the country. The party achieved a significant milestone in 1981 when [[J. B. Jeyaretnam|J.B. Jeyaretnam]] won the [[1981 Anson by-election|Anson by-election]], becoming the first opposition Member of Parliament since 1965. In 2011, the WP made history by winning Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), marking the first-ever opposition victory in a GRC. This was followed by another breakthrough in 2020 with their triumph in Sengkang GRC. The WP continues to advocate for a balanced political landscape, offering constructive and responsible alternatives to the ruling party while championing the rights of Singaporeans.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Workers’ Party |url=https://www.wp.sg/history |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=www.wp.sg |language=en-SG}}</ref>

==== Progress Singapore Party ====
The [[Progress Singapore Party]] (PSP), founded on 28 March 2019 by former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock, is a major opposition party in Singapore.<ref>{{Citation |title=The Progress Singapore Party: Origins, Evolution and Prospects |date=2021-09-26 |work=Breakthrough 2.0 |pages=113–138 |url=https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/9789811227288_0004 |access-date=2025-02-25 |publisher=WORLD SCIENTIFIC |doi=10.1142/9789811227288_0004 |isbn=978-981-12-2727-1}}</ref> PSP contested its first General Election in 2020, fielding 24 candidates across nine constituencies. While the party did not win any seats, its West Coast GRC team achieved a close 48.31% vote share. <ref>{{Cite web |title=GE2020: PSP’s credible maiden showing a ‘head start’ for the future, says Tan Cheng Bock |url=https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/ge2020-psp-average-40-score-head-start-future-says-tan-cheng-bock |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=TODAY |language=en}}</ref>This entitled PSP to two Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) seats, currently held by Hazel Poa and Leong Mun Wai.<ref>{{Cite news |title=GE2020: Progress Singapore Party's Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa declared elected NCMPs |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/ge2020-progress-singapore-partys-leong-mun-wai-and-hazel-poa-declared-elected-ncmps |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230901114514/https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/ge2020-progress-singapore-partys-leong-mun-wai-and-hazel-poa-declared-elected-ncmps |archive-date=2023-09-01 |access-date=2025-02-25 |work=The Straits Times |language=en}}</ref>

==== Other opposition parties ====
There are other major opposition parties such as the [[Singapore People's Party]], [[Reform Party (Singapore)|Reform Party]], and the [[Singapore Democratic Party]] (SDP), that do not hold a seat in parliament.

Despite acquiring an increasing percentage of the popular vote—34% overall in 2006—opposition parties gained small numbers of seats in the general elections of 1984 (2 seats of 79), 1988 (1 seat of 81), 1991 (4 seats of 81), 1997 (2 seats of 83) and 2001 (2 seats of 84). The opposition parties attribute the disproportionate results to the nature of the [[Group Representation Constituency|GRC system]].

As of July 2020, the [[Workers' Party of Singapore|Worker's Party]] holds 10 of 93 elected seats while [[Progress Singapore Party]] holds the remaining 2 [[Non-constituency Member of Parliament|Non-constituency MP]] (NCMP) seats.

===Women's participation in politics===
{{Main|Women in Singapore politics}}
Women traditionally played a significantly smaller role than their male counterparts in Singapore. Nonetheless, in recent years, there is an increasing level of female participation in the Singapore political arena.

On 11 July 2020, [[He Ting Ru]] and [[Raeesah Khan|Raeesah Begum Farid Khan]] became the third and fourth woman from an opposition party to win a seat in parliament by 4,922 votes over the ruling party's candidates in the 2020 general election for [[Sengkang Group Representation Constituency]]([[Group representation constituency|GRC]]). The team was led by He Ting Ru and was first timer Raeesah Khan who proceeded to become the youngest MP in Singapore's Parliamentary history.

[[Lee Li Lian]] was the second woman from an opposition party to win a seat in Parliament with 54.50% of the votes but lost in the following [[2015 Singaporean general election|2015 general election]] by a slim margin. [[Sylvia Lim|Sylvia Lim Swee Lian]], currently the Chairperson of the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and Member of Parliament (MP) representing Aljunied GRC whose team won 54.71% of the votes (54.72% including overseas votes), was the first time that an opposition party won a GRC since the system's introduction on 1 June 1988.

In September 2017, [[Halimah Yacob]] was inaugurated as Singapore's first female President, the only candidate certified as eligible in [[2017 Singaporean presidential election|the election]].

===Shirt colours===

The candidates and supporters of the various political parties tend to wear the following shirt colours while making their rounds in various wards or campaigning.

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope="col" | Party
! scope="col" | Shirt Colour
|-
|[[People's Action Party]] || White
|-
|[[Workers' Party of Singapore|Workers' Party]]  || Light Blue 
|-
|[[Progress Singapore Party]] ||rowspan="2"| Red and White
|-
|[[Singapore People's Party]]  
|-
|[[Singapore Democratic Party]] || Red
|-
|[[National Solidarity Party (Singapore)|National Solidarity Party]] || Orange 
|-
|[[Reform Party (Singapore)|Reform Party]] || Yellow  
|-
|[[Singapore Democratic Alliance]] || Bright Green
|-
|[[Democratic Progressive Party (Singapore)|Democratic Progressive Party]] || White and Orange
|-
|[[People's Power Party (Singapore)|People's Power Party]]|| Light Purple
|-
|[[Peoples Voice (Singapore)|Peoples Voice]] || Purple and Black
|-
|[[Red Dot United]] || Navy Blue
|}