SINGAPORE: Ruling People's Action Party (PAP) wins another overwhelming mandate to govern in country's elections

Record ID: 858715

  • Title: SINGAPORE: Ruling People's Action Party (PAP) wins another overwhelming mandate to govern in country's elections
  • Date: 7th May 2006
  • Summary: SINGAPORE PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG ARRIVING AT ASSEMBLY CENTRE SUPPORTERS WAVING PARTY FLAGS LEE AND PAP CANDIDATES WAVING TO CROWD AFTER ELECTION WIN IN CONSTITUENCY CROWD CHEERING WIDE SHOT OF LEE ADDRESSING CROWD AT PODIUM CLOSE-UP OF LEE AT PODIUM WIDE SHOT OF LEE AND PAP CANDIDATES HOLDING ARMS UP TOGETHER MORE OF PAP SUPPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 22nd May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Singapore
  • City:
  • Country: Singapore
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADW7BCIFMDXH0UOHVF9E98F95G
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The party which has ruled Singapore for four decades won another overwhelming mandate in Saturday's (May 6) elections, but failed to achieve the clean sweep of all parliamentary seats it had hoped for.
    The People's Action Party (PAP) won 66.6 percent of the votes cast, down from 75.3 percent in the 2001 poll. But it held on to 82 seats in the 84-seat parliament, giving it an almost unchallenged free hand to continue its pro-business policies.
    "I am very happy that the PAP has been returned to government. Overall, our percentage is 66.6 percent, exactly two-thirds, and it's slightly higher than the percentage which we scored in 1997. So I would like to thank all Singaporeans for giving me and my team this very strong mandate. The support has come from all communities, across all races and we will do our best to serve you, work with you so that we can achieve our vision for Singapore," 54-year-old Lee Hsien Loong, fighting his first election as prime minister, told a news conference.
    The city-state of 4.4 million people, which borders Malaysia, is an important regional manufacturing, trading, and financial services centre which relies heavily on foreign investment and its image as a secure business environment.
    The PAP had hoped for a crushing victory by winning every single seat in parliament.
    Lee, the eldest son of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew who led Singapore to independence from Malaysia in 1965, was appointed in August 2004 without an election.
    The prime minister said his party respected the choice of voters for the two opposition members but vowed to work harder to win the seats back in the next election.
    "We've won 82 out of 84 seats, the same number as in the previous parliament. For Potong Pasir and Hougang, we had tried very to win them back but the voters decided otherwise. We will respect the choice of the voters who have chosen the opposition to manage their towns and homes."
    Although the opposition failed to build on its two parliamentary seats, Low Thia Khiang of the Workers' Party and Chiam See Tong of the Singapore Democratic Alliance saw their winning margins improve.
    The opposition parties had fielded candidates for more than half the seats in parliament for the first time in 18 years.
    Like the previous three elections, this one was overshadowed by defamation lawsuits and personal attacks -- a timeworn PAP tactic that has bankrupted some opposition leaders, thus disqualifying them for parliament.
    Just a week before the polls, Lee Hsien Loong and his father launched a defamation suit against the Singapore Democratic Party and its leaders.
    During the campaigning period, the PAP repeatedly condemned an opposition candidate from the Workers' Party as a "liar", urging the party to drop him after he wrongly claimed that the elections office had lost one of his election forms.
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