The People's Action Party is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and one of three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and Progress Singapore Party (PSP).
The Workers' Party is a major centre-left political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the governing People's Action Party (PAP) and the opposition Progress Singapore Party (PSP). It is currently the largest opposition party in Parliament. It is also one of the two oldest parties active in the country, having contested every parliamentary election since 1959, the other being the PAP. The WP has been the only political party other than the PAP with elected Members of Parliament (MPs) since the 1991 general election.
The Democratic Action Party is a centre-left social democratic political party in Malaysia. As one of four component parties of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, it formed the federal government after defeating Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 2018 Malaysian general election, ending the party's 53 year-long stay in the opposition. However, before the coalition finished its first term, defections from partnering parties caused it to lose power after 22 months, culminating in the 2020 Malaysian political crisis. At the 2022 Malaysian general election, the PH coalition which the DAP was part of was returned to power again, albeit without a majority, leading it to form a unity government with political rivals.
Barisan Sosialis was a political party in Singapore. It was formed on 29 July 1961 and officially registered on 13 August 1961 by left-wing members of the People's Action Party (PAP) who had been expelled from the PAP. The prominent founding members of the Barisan were Lee Siew Choh and Lim Chin Siong. It became the biggest opposition party in Singapore in the 1960s and the 1980s.
The United People's Party was a political party in Singapore, formed by the former People's Action Party (PAP) leader Ong Eng Guan in 1961. After it won a seat in the Legislative Assembly, in the 1963 General Elections, the party's existence was in doubt as Singapore was knocked out of the Malaysian federation by Malaysia. In June 1965, Ong resigned from his seat and the seat was subsequently won back by the PAP in the by-election. By the 1968 election, the party had dissolved.
There are currently two types of elections in Singapore: parliamentary and presidential elections. According to the Constitution of Singapore, general elections for Parliament must be conducted within three months of the dissolution of Parliament, which has a maximum term of five years from the first sitting of Parliament, and presidential elections are conducted every six years.
Lim Chin Siong was a Singaporean politician and union leader active in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the founders of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed the country continuously since independence. Lim also used his popularity to galvanise many trade unions in support of the PAP.
Lim Yew Hock was a Singaporean-born Malaysian politician and diplomat who served as Chief Minister of Singapore between 1956 and 1959. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cairnhill between 1959 and 1963 and previously a Member of the Legislative Council and later Legislative Assembly between 1948 and 1963. He was the 2nd de facto Leader of the Opposition between 1959 and 1963. He and his family elected to take up Malaysian citizenship after Singapore's independence from Malaysia.
General elections were held in Singapore on 21 September 1963, five days after Singapore became part of Malaysia. Voters elected all 51 members of the Legislative Assembly. The elections were the only ones to date with no boundary changes to any existing constituencies prior to the elections. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party (PAP), which won 37 of the 51 seats, while the majority of the remaining seats were won by Barisan Sosialis (BS).
The following lists events that happened during 1961 in Singapore.
General elections were held in Singapore on 30 May 1959. They were held under the new constitution and were the first in which all 51 seats in the Legislative Assembly were filled by election. This was the first election victory for the People's Action Party (PAP), as they won a landslide victory with 43 seats. The party has remained in power ever since.
General elections were held in Singapore on 2 January 1997. President Ong Teng Cheong dissolved parliament on 16 December 1996 on the advice of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. The election results were released in the late evening that day and the ruling People's Action Party won a total of 81 out of 83 seats as well as a tenth consecutive term in office under the then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Other major political parties contesting in the election were the Workers' Party, Singapore Democratic Party, National Solidarity Party, Singapore People's Party and the Democratic Progressive Party.
The self-governance of Singapore was carried out in several stages. Since the founding of Singapore in 1819, Singapore had been under the colonial rule of the United Kingdom. The first local elections on a limited scale for several positions in the government of Singapore started in 1948 following an amendment to the Constitution of Singapore.
Ong Eng Guan was a Singaporean politician who served as Minister for National Development between 1959 and 1960. An anti-communist, Ong was a Chinese-educated orator who became popular among the Chinese community in Singapore. He was also one of the pioneering members of the governing People's Action Party (PAP). He was elected into the City Council of Singapore and became the first and only elected mayor in Singapore's history after the 1957 City Council election.
General elections were held in Singapore on 22 December 1984. President Devan Nair dissolved parliament on 4 December 1984 on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party, which won 77 of the 79 seats, marking the first time since 1963 that at least one opposition candidate was elected to parliament in a general election, although the first presence of an opposition MP was in the 1981 Anson by-election.
General elections were held in Singapore on 3 September 1988. President Wee Kim Wee dissolved parliament on 17 August 1988 on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party, which won 80 of the 81 seats.
The by-election was held in Singapore on 31 October 1981. The by-election was to replace the vacant seat after the incumbent MP, Devan Nair, stood down in order to become President of Singapore.
The by-election was held on 10 July 1965, with the nomination day held on 30 June 1965. Merely a month before Singapore's separation from Malaysia and independence, UPP chief, and the party's sole Assembly Member Ong Eng Guan resigned his seat and retired from politics, triggering a by-election.
The 2nd Legislative Assembly of Singapore was a meeting of the Legislative Assembly of Singapore from 1 July 1959 until 3 September 1963.
General elections are due to be held in Singapore no later than 23 November 2025 to determine the composition of the fifteenth Parliament. The elections will be the nineteenth in Singapore since 1948 and the fourteenth since independence.
4.42%
