2020 Singaporean general election

General elections were held in Singapore on 10 July 2020 to elect members of Parliament. They were the fifteenth general elections since the introduction of self-government in 1959 and the thirtheenth since independence in 1965. Parliament was dissolved and the general election called by President Halimah Yacob on 23 June, on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The number of elected seats was increased to 93 from the 89 in the previous election.
The election was significantly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which became a central issue in the campaign. The governing People's Action Party emphasised its management of the crisis, including securing supplies of face masks and increasing tests. In contrast, opposition parties criticised the government's handling of the pandemic, particularly the high number of COVID-19 cases in foreign worker dormitories and the Ministry of Health's reversal of its guidance on mask usage. Beyond the pandemic, other key issues that emerged during the election included the cost of living, housing affordability, population growth and immigration policies. The election also featured constituency political broadcasts, a televised programme hosted by Mediacorp, which replaced physical rallies that were suspended as part of social distancing measures.
On polling day, the ruling PAP secured its 15th consecutive term in government since 1959, winning 83 of the 93 elected seats and retaining its supermajority. The Workers' Party captured the remaining 10. With the WP polling 50.5% in the 6 constituencies it contested against the PAP, this was the first general election since independence where the PAP lost the combined popular vote in constituencies contested by an opposition party. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the election also recorded the highest voter turnout since 1997, and it was the first election in which more than 1 million votes were not cast for the PAP.

Background

According to Article 65 of the Constitution, the maximum term of any given Parliament is five years from the date of its first sitting following a general election, after which it is dissolved by operation of law. However, the prime minister may advise the President to dissolve Parliament at any time during the five-year period. A general election must be held within three months after every dissolution of Parliament. Elections are conducted by the Elections Department, which is under the Prime Minister's Office.
There are 93 elected seats in Parliament organised into 14 Single Member Constituencies and 17 Group Representation Constituencies. Each SMC returns one Member of Parliament using the first past the post voting system, while each GRC returns four or five MPs through the party block voting electoral system, where at least one of whom must be from the Malay, Indian or other minority communities. A group of candidates wishing to stand for election in a GRC must all be members of the same political party, or a group of independent candidates, resulting in a situation where the victorious party obtains 100% of the seats in a given GRC. The voting age in Singapore is 21 years, with eligibility to voters who were born before 1 March 1999.
On 23 June 2020 at 16:00 Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced during a live televised announcement that President Halimah Yacob had dissolved the 13th Parliament of Singapore on the same day and had issued a writ of election with nominations to be held a week later on 30 June 2020.
The returning officer was Tan Meng Dui, a former deputy secretary at the Ministry of National Development and CEO of the National Environment Agency. This is his first election as Returning Officer, taking over from Ng Wai Choong who had served in this role in the previous general election.

Political parties

The governing People's Action Party, having been in power since 1959, was led by Lee Hsien Loong throughout the election period. The leading opposition party is the Workers' Party led by Pritam Singh, with six elected seats and three NCMP seats before the election. A total of ten opposition parties challenged the ruling party in this election.

Changes in election process

The Elections Department introduced several new features for this election to help ease the election process for voters, candidates and election volunteers. Registration of voters on polling day will be done electronically and election officials need not manually strike out a voter's particulars from a hardcopy register of electors. Voters will be able to mark their candidate choices more clearly using self-inking pens and enjoy shorter queuing time with the introduction of the e-registration system. Candidates are able to fill in most of the necessary documents online while election volunteers are able to count the number of votes within a shorter duration with the help of counting machines, enabling election results to be released at least 50 minutes earlier. In addition, there will be more polling stations, reducing the average number of voters per polling station from 3,000 to about 2,400. Senior citizens above the age of 65 will be given priority to vote between 8 am and 12 pm on Polling Day.
Election recount can occur if the margin of results for a constituency are within a 2% range. Unlike the previous elections, the recount is now triggered automatically rather than being called out manually from the candidates or counting agents, which was previously seen in 1991, 2011 and 2015 ; additionally, a standby counting machine would be used for recount instead of being manually counted. Similar to past elections, overseas votes is disregarded during a recount of votes as it does not cause any impact from the eventual results, unless if the total overseas electorate is greater than the difference of votes.

Non-constituency Member of Parliament

On 27 January 2016, an amendment to the Constitution was passed, increasing the minimum number of opposition Members of Parliament by three to 12 members. This is the first increase for the number of opposition MPs allocated since the 2011 Singaporean general election, when it was increased from three members to nine. As in the case for previous elections, NCMP seats are offered to the best-performing non-elected opposition candidates, with the number determined by the total number of opposition candidates elected; if there are at least 12 opposition candidates elected, then NCMP seats will not be offered, as previously seen in the 1991 election. The names of the eligible candidates are announced a few days after the polling day. Candidates may decline the post if offered, as was seen previously in the 1984 and 2015 elections.

Electoral divisions

	2015	2020
Seats	89	93
Electoral divisions	29	31
Group representation constituencies	16	17
Four-Member GRCs	6	6
Five-Member GRCs	8	11
Six-Member GRCs	2	0
Single member constituencies	13	14
Average GRC size	4.75	4.65
Voters	2,458,058	2,647,372
Voters	2,462,926	2,653,942

The Electoral Boundaries Review Committee is made up of senior civil servants and charged with adjusting the boundaries of electoral divisions prior to an election. The government officially claims this as necessary to ensure minority participation in Parliament amidst demographic changes while ensuring an equitable number of voters represented per MP, though critics have raised allegations of gerrymandering to disadvantage the opposition. As of 2015, there were 16 GRCs and 13 SMCs. Prime Minister Lee convened the committee on 1 August 2019 with instructions to reduce the size of GRCs and increase the number of SMCs. The exact date of formation was revealed only when Pritam Singh asked Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing in a written reply in Parliament.
The Committee released its report on 13 March 2020 with the formation of 17 GRCs and 14 SMCs. For the first time since 1991, six-member GRCs were eliminated and reduced to five. A new Sengkang GRC was formed from portions of the former Punggol East and Sengkang West SMCs and the boundaries of Tampines GRC were altered for the first time since 2001, due to the increase in population in the northeastern area of Singapore. Four new SMCs were also carved out, three former SMCs were absorbed into neighbouring GRCs, while two SMCs had their boundaries modified. The remaining SMCs and four GRCs were left untouched, though the Workers' Party raised questions on the abolition of SMCs that it had previously contested and lost by a narrow margin. The changes saw about 13% of voters being allocated to a new constituency and increased the number of seats from 89 to 93.

Disruptions from COVID-19 pandemic

During a Straits Times forum on 11 March, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that the timing of the elections could be affected in view of the worsening pandemic. On 25 March, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament that he believed it would be unconstitutional for the President to form a caretaker government unless a state of emergency had been recommended by the Cabinet to the President.
On 28 March, Tan Cheng Bock responded to Teo's comments by saying that the unconstitutional nature of a caretaker government as a result of a postponing a general election would be far more preferred than having a health emergency by exposing millions of Singaporeans to potential COVID-19 infection.
On 7 April, Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing introduced the Parliamentary Elections Bill to Parliament which would allow voters under Stay-Home Notices or Quarantine Orders related to COVID-19 to vote outside of their normal electoral divisions in the upcoming General Election. The Bill was passed by Parliament on 4 May and assented to by the President on 15 May. The Parliamentary Elections Act 2020 came into operation on 26 May.
On 1 July, the Parliamentary Elections Regulations 2020 was made to provide for mobile polling teams at special polling stations and to allow voters who have fever or on COVID-19 stay orders to vote from 7 pm to 8 pm on polling day.