General Elections, 2015

The 2015 Singapore general elections were held on 11 September to form Singapore's Parliament. The previous Parliament was dissolved on 25 August 2015 by President Tony Tan on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and candidates were nominated on 1 September.

The election was the first since Singapore's independence which saw all seats contested. Most of the seats were contested between two parties, with the only three-cornered fights occurring in three Single Member Constituencies. Using first-past-the-post voting, the election was also the first after the March 2015 death of Lee Kuan Yew (the nation's first Prime Minister and an MP until his passing) and Singapore's 50th anniversary celebration in August 2015.

Out of 89 seats, the People's Action Party (PAP) contested all and won 83, with the other 6 seats won by The Workers' Party of Singapore (WP); the single seat from Punggol East Single Member Constituency was the only seat to change hands, recaptured by PAP. Voter turnout was 93.56%, discounting overseas votes. PAP won its best results since 2001 with 69.86% of the popular vote, an increase of 9.72% from the previous election in 2011. WP scored 39.75% of votes in the 28 seats it contested, a drop of 6.83%. In the overall popular vote, WP scored 12.48% and the remaining seven parties less than 4% each. Three candidates failed to secure 12.5% of votes in their area and thus lost their electoral deposit.

Background
The maximum term of a Singaporean parliament is five years, within which it must be dissolved by the President and elections held within three months, as stated in the Constitution. Voting is mandatory in Singapore and is based on the first-past-the-post system. Elections are conducted by the Elections Department, which is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The General Election was the 17th General Election in Singapore and is the 12th since independence in 1965. The election coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Republic of Singapore's founding.

The governing People's Action Party (PAP) have secured their 14th consecutive term in office since 1959. This will be the PAP's third election with Lee Hsien Loong as its Secretary-General, and the country's first election after the passing of its founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. It is also the country's first election where there are no walkovers in any of the constituencies, as voting will take place in Tanjong Pagar GRC for the first time.

Political parties
The governing People's Action Party (PAP) has been in power since 1959 and is currently led by the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The leading Opposition party is The Worker's Party, led by Low Thia Khiang, with 7 elected seats and 2 NCMP seats. The Singapore People's Party led by Chiam See Tong has 1 NCMP seat. A total of eight Opposition parties challenged the ruling party in this election.

Electoral divisions
The Electoral Boundaries Review Committee is convened before every general election to review electoral boundaries in view of population growth and shifts. The Committee is appointed by the Prime Minister. Its published list signifies the start of an election cycle.

The new electoral divisions were announced on 24 July 2015.

Singapore's largest newspaper, The Straits Times, created an interactive map of the boundary changes. Click here to explore the interactive.



There were no changes made to the three electoral divisions held by the Workers' Party, namely, Aljunied GRC, Hougang SMC and Punggol East SMC. Two electoral divisions held by the PAP, namely Potong Pasir SMC, which was held by the Opposition until 2011, as well as Tampines GRC, were also left untouched.

Nomination centres
The Elections Department issued the following information upon the issuance of the writ of election
 * Date: 1 September 2015
 * Time: 1100 - 1200h
 * Returning Officer: Ng Wai Choong
 * Election Deposit: S$14,500 (down from S$16,000 in 2011)



Political party broadcasts
Since the 1980 General Election, political parties fielding at least six candidates under a recognised party symbol are eligible for air-time. Time allocation is based on the number of candidates fielded.

Note: SPP declined to participate in the second Party Political Broadcast, so there was no broadcast of SPP on that day.

Election rallies
The Singapore Police Force announced on Nomination Day 1 September 2015, a list of sites available for electoral meetings. Such meetings could be held from 2 to 9 Sep between 7AM to 10PM. The police also announced that Speakers' Corner would not serve as an "unrestricted area" during the campaigning period. All rallies below are held between 7PM to 10PM, rallies marked with a denotes the rally was held between 12pm to 2pm.

Outgoing incumbents and incoming candidates
The below is a summary for the three political parties with parliamentary presence from GE2011.

Election results


After polls closed at 8pm, vote counting began. Results were announced by Ng Wai Choong, chief executive director of the Energy Market Authority, who acted as the Returning Officer for the election. The first result was declared at 11.31pm on 11 September 2015 where PAP candidate Lam Pin Min won the Sengkang West Single Member Constituency with a majority of 17,564. The last result was declared at 3.10am on 12 September 2015 where Workers' Party team contesting Aljunied Group Representation Constituency, led by party's secretary-general Low Thia Khiang, won the constituency by a narrow margin of 1.9%, or a majority of 2,612.

Contrary to expectations of a tougher contest with all constituencies being contested by the opposition parties, the People's Action Party won its best ever results since the 2001 general election, achieving a swing of 9.7% to achieve 69.9% of the vote as compared to the previous election in 2011 when it received 60.1%. The PAP unexpectedly reclaimed the constituency of Punggol East lost to the Workers' Party in a 2013 by-election, and achieved a swing in Aljunied GRC large enough to force a vote recount although the WP retained the constituency.

Results summary


For the first time in history, sample counts were released by the Elections Department to prevent speculation and misinformation from unofficial sources while counting is underway. All sample counts were released by 10PM – two hours after polling ended. With the exception of Aljunied and Punggol East, where counts were within a 4% error margin, all other figures showed that PAP had comfortable leads in 26 electoral divisions, while WP led in 1 electoral division.

Analysis
Top 14 best PAP performers
 * Constituencies with no comparison to 2011 were either due to them being new constituencies or the constituencies experiencing walkovers in the last election.

Top 15 best opposition performers
 * Constituencies with no comparison to 2011 were either due to them being new constituencies or the constituencies experiencing walkovers in the last election.

Vote Swings
 * Only the following constituencies may be compared with 2011 results as they existed in both elections, although most had changes in their electoral boundaries.