Singapore's 16th parliamentary general election will be held on 7 May 2011. The Parliament of Singapore's term is five years and then must be dissolved by the President of Singapore as pertained in the Constitution of Singapore. Singapore has compulsory voting and uses the first-past-the-post system. The election will be conducted by the Elections Department, which is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Office. On 19 April 2011, parliament has been dissolved and elections must be held within three months.
Nomination day was held on 27 April 2011, and for the second election in a row, the PAP was not returned to power on nomination day and there were no independent candidates have officially nominated in any particular ward. However, this elections sees the first and the only three-cornered fight since 2001 in Punggol East SMC.
The elections has been described as a "watershed election" in various forms by various parties. The ruling PAP reminded voters that the election will determine "Singapore's next generation of leaders". The Workers' Party called it a "watershed election" both for Singapore and the opposition, as it marked the first time in two decades that the only two incumbent opposition MPs moved out of their respective strongholds and are contesting in GRCs, and there is a significant risk that there will be "no elected opposition MPs". This is despite the elections having the highest proportion of contested seats since independence, with 82 of 87 seats contested (or 94.3%).
The last post-independence record was in 1972, where 87.7% of seats were contested (or 57 out of 65 seats), while there were contests in all seats in the three pre-independence GEs. It therefore saw the first electoral contests in Bishan-Toa Payoh (since 1991) and in Holland-Bukit Timah, and leaves Tanjong Pagar as the only constituency never to see an election since its formation in 1991.
Resources:
The Online Citizen
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