2020 Singaporean general election

The Next Singapore general election is scheduled to be held somewhere around 2020, after the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) was convened on August 2019. It will elect the 15th Parliament of Singapore since independence in 1965.

According to the Constitution, the Parliament of Singapore's maximum term is five years from the date of the first sitting of Parliament following a general election, after which it is dissolved by operation of law. However, the Prime Minister may advise the President to dissolve Parliament before the five-year period is up, which might be happening around March or September 2020. A general election must be held within three months after a dissolution of Parliament. Singapore uses the first-past-the-post system of election, and voting is mandatory for all Singaporeans aged at least 21. Elections are conducted by the Elections Department, which is under the Prime Minister's Office.

Background
The next general election will be the 18th general election in Singapore and the 13th since independence. The governing People's Action Party will seek to secure their 15th consecutive term in office since 1959.

Political developments since 2015 General Election

People's Action Party
2015 People's Action Party (PAP) candidate for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Murali Pillai, who lost the election to the Workers' Party team, was elected as PAP Member of Parliament (MP) for Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency (SMC) in a by-election on 7 May 2016. This comes following the resignation of the constituency's former MP, David Ong over personal indiscretion.

On 7 August 2017, Speaker of Parliament and PAP MP for Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC Halimah Yacob vacated her seat in order to stand for the 2017 Presidential Election. Presidential candidates are not allowed to be affiliated with any political parties and MPs who quit from the party they were elected under will automatically have their seats vacated.

The PAP elected both Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat and Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing as the party's first and second assistant secretary-general respectively in the PAP's 35th Central Executive Committee on 23 November 2018. The post of assistant secretary general is a wild indicator of Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong's successor given that the upcoming election is likely to be Mr Lee's last election as the PM of Singapore.

On 1 May 2019, Mr Heng took over Deputy Prime Ministers Teo Chee Hean and Tharman Shamugaratnam as Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister (DPM). This officially puts DPM Heng to be Singapore's next PM when PM Lee steps down.

The Workers' Party
The Workers' Party (WP) elected Pritam Singh as the party's new secretary-general on 8 April 2018. This comes after the party's previous secretary-general, Low Thia Khiang, who has served the position for 17 years since 2001 has indicated that he will step down to make way for new blood.

Other opposition parties

Two new parties and one new alliance were formed. Former leader of the National Solidarity Party, Lim Tean formed a party called Peoples Voice which was officially registered by the Registry of Societies (ROS) on 31 October 2018. 2011 Presidential Election candidate and former PAP MP for Ayer Rajah SMC Dr Tan Cheng Bock returns to politics under the opposition umbrella. Dr Tan created the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) together with several former PAP members on 18 January 2019. PSP was officially registered by the ROS on 28 March 2019.

On 3 January 2020, four opposition parties: Singaporeans First, People's Power Party, the Reform Party and Democratic Progressive Party made a formal plan to contest the upcoming election as an alliance.

Singapore People's Party (SPP) saw its first major leadership change since its formation. On 16 October 2019, opposition veteran Chiam See Tong stepped down as secretary-general of the SPP after holding the post for 23 years since December 1996. Former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Steve Chia took over the post on 5 November 2019.

Changes in election process
The Elections Department introduced several new features for this election to help ease the election process for voters, candidates and election volunteers. Voters will be able to mark their candidate(s) choices more clearly using self-inking pens and enjoy shorter queuing time with the introduction of the e-registration system. Candidates are able to fill in most of the necessary documents online while election volunteers are able to count the number of votes within a shorter duration with the help of counting machines, enabling election results to be released at least 50 minutes earlier.

Electoral divisions

The Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) normally publishes an updated list of electoral divisions just before elections are called. Prior to the latest amendments, there were 16 GRCs, each with four, five or six seats, and 13 Single Member Constituencies (SMC). There were a total of 89 seats contested in the 2015 general election.

On 1 August 2019, Lee convened the EBRC. The formation was only publicly announced on 4 September 2019, however the formation date was superficially stated as the month of August. The exact date of formation was not known until it was publicly answered on 7 October that year, when Opposition Leader Pritam Singh asked Trade and Industry Minister, Chan Chun Sing in a written reply.

See also
 Constituencies of Singapore
 Elections in Singapore
 List of political parties in Singapore

Notes

References

Category:Elections in Singapore
Singapore general election