Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam dissolved parliament on Tuesday, setting up elections in May. File Photo Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
Singaporeans will need to vote for a new parliament after the nation’s president, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, dissolved it Tuesday.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced he advised the president to dissolve parliament while alluding to the current economic upheavals related to the Trump administration’s tariff policies.
“We are witnessing profound changes in the world. It is becoming more uncertain, unsettled and even unstable. The global conditions that enabled Singapore’s success over the past decades may no longer hold,” Wong said.
“That is why I have called this General Election. At this critical juncture, Singaporeans should decide on the team to lead our nation, and to chart our way forward together.”
The Elections Department Singapore then confirmed on social media that Shanmugaratnam has issued the Writ of Election for General Election 2025, and that Nomination Day for candidates will be April 23, and that the election will take place May 3.
The current-ruling People’s Action Party, or PAP, won 83 out of 93 seats during the last election in 2020, but it also saw the opposition Workers’ Party win ten seats, which was that party’s largest victory since Singapore gained independence in 1965.
However, the PAP is generally expected to maintain its majority, with now 97 parliamentary seats in play. Voting is mandatory for all of Singapore’s 2.75 million eligible citizens.
