Singapore takes first key step toward holding 2025 election
By Philip J. Heijmans
(Bloomberg) – Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Wednesday that he’s convened a committee to review electoral boundaries, in a sign that the government may call for an early national vote in the Southeast Asian city-state.
The premier directed the register of electors to be revised before April 1, the election department said in a statement. Wong said in a separate post on Facebook that the panel will then submit recommendations to him “in due course.” Usually the polling date is set to two to four months later.
Singapore must hold a vote by November in what will be the 52-year-old leader’s first electoral test since taking over from Lee Hsien Loong in May last year. Observers say Wong may opt for early elections to secure a new mandate as the trade-reliant nation navigates brewing global economic uncertainties.
While most observers doubt that the People’s Action Party will lose power, ceding even a few seats in parliament would be seen as a setback for a party that has ruled Singapore uninterrupted since independence in 1965. In the last election in 2020, the PAP won 89% of the parliament seats in what was still its worst performance ever due in part over concerns about growing inequality.
“I do not assume that I will continue as prime minister or that the PAP will automatically form the next government,” Wong told local media in November.
Wong, a Harvard graduate, took office just as Singapore’s open economy faced rising global uncertainties driven by strained US-China ties and wars in Gaza and Ukraine. That has since been amplified by Donald Trump’s return to the White House on vows to boost tariffs that could damage global trade.
With the cost of living ranked as the top concern among Singaporeans, Wong has pledged to boost safety nets and re-skilling programs as part of a strategy focusing on income and wealth inequality.
(Updates with context throughout)
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