Singapore’s PAP Strengthens Parliamentary StrangleholdTrump tariffs play a role in yet another country’s polls
Singapore’s People’s Action Party, which has ruled the city-state for 66 straight years, has extended its rule for another five in a general election that saw the party increase its parliamentary hold, winning 82 seats after earlier taking five uncontested ones for 87 of the 97-seat legislature. It was a race that, as with several others over the planet, was heavily influenced by the tariffs that US President Donald Trump has used to threaten the global trading system, which is crucial to Singapore’s existence. The dominant May 3 victory is a reversal of recent trends and a triumph for the 52-year-old Lawrence Wong, a US-trained economist who took over the premiership last May to skipper the race without the powerful shadow of the Lee dynasty behind him. The PAP didn’t invoke the memory of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister who is widely revered, and it didn’t pick former Premier Lee Hsien Loong’s son Li Hongyi as a parliamentary candidate, as many had expected. The party’s popular vote increased from a near-record low of 61 percent in Covid-marred 2020 polls to 65.6 percent, partly a tribute to the efficacy of gerrymandering, which gave the PAP 89.7 percent of the seats. The strong showing is certain to give Wong's breathing room within the party after being anointed as leader last May by the 75-year-old Lee Hsien Loong, who had ruled Singapore for 20 years and who dithered between two other candidates for three years. He ultimately discarded the heir apparent he had previously named, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, before choosing Wong, partly on Wong’s performance as the leader of the effort against the Covid-19 pandemic, which badly damaged the economy and took more than 2,000 lives, sickening thousands. Wong’s challenges in consolidating his leadership will be eased considerably by the electoral performance. A Singaporean businessman recently said on Facebook that if the PAP had lost more votes and seats, it could have sparked a power struggle to select a new leader, which could potentially split the party. Over the past two years, the party has faced Transportation Minister S Iswaran's corruption conviction, a defamation suit by Cabinet ministers against Bloomberg over property reporting, a massive money-laundering scandal, and an ongoing Lee family feud. He has Lee Hsien Loong looking over his shoulder, as Goh Chok Tong (1990-2004) once had Hsien Loong’s father watching his performance. Triumphant PAP supporters gathered in public venues to wave flags and cheer in celebration of an election that all wiped out the luckless splinter parties that make up the opposition, except for the Workers Party, which managed to survive a scandal in which it was hammered mercilessly by the PAP after a junior WP member was found to have lied to Parliament. She was forced to resign, and party leaders were sued in court. Analysts said a major cause of the PAP's stronger showing was US President Donald Trump with his tariffs against dozens of nations, including 10 percent on exports from Singapore, causing voters to swing toward the party they felt would steer them through the coming crisis. The island state is a trading nation through which goods and services from its surrounding neighbors – who have been pounded with even higher tariffs – flow as well. Wong, in a somber April 8 speech to Parliament, warned that “the likelihood of a full-blown global trade war is growing,” and called America’s new tariff regime a complete repudiation of the most-favored nation principle that will spell trouble for all nations. The US, he said, “may have decided to turn protectionist. But the rest of the world does not have to follow the same path. We will identify other partners to join us and work around this – to ensure resilience and maintain critical parts of the multilateral system, while laying the foundations for a possible new and different global system that can be achievable later.” “It can be said that Trump swung the Singapore elections in favor of the ruling PAP,” said an analyst. “PAP politicians promoted their party as a safe pair of hands amidst the international uncertainty caused by Trump's tariffs and his other policies. For example, during the elections, Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam told voters that Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong can help save Singaporean jobs if Gan is re-elected, as Gan has been in talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.” For different reasons, the Trump factor in Singapore is in vivid contrast to Canada and Australia, where resentment of politicians who tied themselves to the US president reversed what appeared to be sure victories. In Australia, Anthony Albanese claimed victory as the first Australian prime minister to clinch a second consecutive term in 21 years while conservative member of parliament Keith Wolahan, who conceded his seat at the election, told the ABC his party had misread the public mood. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party came back from what had appeared to be certain defeat on the back of opposition to Trump’s trade war and threat to annex the nation. “As I’ve been warning for months,” Carney said in his victory address, “America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country. These are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us.” There are elections looming in South Korea, which is set to replace the impeached Yoon Suk Yeol in June, and Japan, which is expected to hold an election for its House of Councillors in July. Trump’s tariff threats are likely to play a role in both. The Philippines also goes to the polls in off-year elections on May 13, where local politics are likely to play the main role. In the May 3 elections, although the PAP won a substantial majority in both the popular vote and number of seats, it only narrowly won some seats. For example, in the seat of Jalan Kayu, PAP candidate Ng Chee Meng beat the Workers' Party candidate Andre Low by only 51.5 percent of the vote to 48.5 percent. One of the showcase races was in the newly formed Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC) where the PAP team, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, bested a Workers Party opposition slate headed by Harvard-trained senior counsel Harpreet Singh, 59, who was looked upon by many as the future of the Workers Party. In Singapore's democratic system, a GRC is a group of parliamentary seats which must include ethnic minority members of parliament. In the West Coast-Jurong West GRC, a Progress Singapore Party team, which included its chairman Tan Cheng Bock, its vice chairperson Hazel Poa, and secretary general Leong Mun Wai, gained only 40 percent of the votes, fewer than the 48.3 percent it gained in the last election in 2020. The larger margin of loss of the PSP team in 2025 means Leong and Poa will lose their role as Non-Constituency Members of Parliament. In Singapore's democracy, if the opposition wins less than 12 seats, the best-performing losing candidates become MPs to bring the number of opposition members of parliament to 12. Leong said his party's performance at this election was "very shocking" and the PSP will study the results "seriously and humbly." Leong said, "We need to regroup ourselves so that we can fight another day." The 85-year-old Tan Cheng Bock, who left the PAP to establish the party, said this will probably be his last election. A Singaporean taxi driver echoed the feelings of many voters in that while the PAP won this election, the party can’t afford to be complacent, since its victory in many constituencies over the Workers' Party was narrow. He complained of restrictions on his withdrawals from the Central Provident Fund (CPF), the Singapore state-backed pension fund and other problems. PM Wong told reporters he was “humbled and grateful” for the solid mandate for the PAP and acknowledged voters’ desire to have more alternative voices in government, but said a strong PAP team is needed to tackle challenges ahead. A local correspondent who declined to be named contributed to this report This is among the stories/excerpts we choose to make widely available.If you wish to get the full Asia Sentinel experience and access more exclusive content, please do subscribe to us for US$10/month or US$100/year.
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