Michael Palmer elected as Speaker of Parliament

UPDATE:

Singapore's 12th Parliament has just been sworn in, and Michael Palmer, Member of Parliament (MP) for Punggol East single member constituency (SMC) has been elected as its Speaker.

This makes him Singapore's eighth Speaker of Parliament, succeeding former Speaker Abdullah Tarmugi, who has retired from politics.

Palmer will undertake the following roles as Speaker:

• Being overall in-charge of the administration of Parliament and its secretariat;

• Presiding over the sittings of the House and enforcing the rules prescribed in the Standing Orders of parliament for its orderly conduct;

• Deciding who has the right to speak, putting questions for the House to debate on and vote.

Of the 90 members of Parliament, 81 are from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which saw its share of vote drop to an all-time low of 60.1 per cent in the general election in May.

The remaining nine MPs include six from the opposition Workers’ Party (WP) — Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap, Pritam Singh and Chen Show Mao representing Aljunied group representation constituency (GRC), and Yaw Shin Leong, representing Hougang SMC.

The other three are non-constituency MPs, which comprise Potong Pasir SMC candidate Lina Chiam, who is from the Singapore People’s Party, Joo Chiat SMC candidate Yee Jenn Jong and East Coast GRC candidate Gerald Giam, both from the WP.

[See where your MPs will be seated here.]

President Tony Tan will be delivering his address at 8:30pm, according to the Clerk of Parliament.

After President Tan’s address tonight, Singapore’s government ministries will release statements in response to it over the next few days, detailing key plans for the country over the coming five years. These are compiled into a collective addendum to the address.

Parliament will then convene on 17 October to commence a week-long debate during which MPs will express their sentiments about the issues raised in the presidential address, as well as the addendum.

During the debate, MPs may also highlight concerns expressed by residents of their respective constituencies.