Backgrounder: Singapore Parliament and general election

The Singapore Parliament has a single House and Members of Parliament (MPs) are voted in at regular general elections. The five-year term of each Parliament starts from the date of its first sitting after a general election.

The leader of the political party that wins the majority of the parliamentary seats will become the Prime Minister, as asked by the President, and the Prime Minister will select his ministers from elected MPs to form the Cabinet.

Singapore's Constitution requires that each Parliament must be dissolved no later than the end of its five-year term and that general elections must be held no later than three months from the dissolution of the previous Parliament.

Singapore's last general election was held in November 2001, in which the People's Action Party (PAP) got 75 percent of the votes and won 82 out of the 84 parliamentary seats, while the Workers' Party (WP) and the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) gained one seat each.

The then secretary general of the PAP Goh Chok Tong became the Prime Minister and formed the Cabinet. Lee Hsien Loong took over office as Prime Minister from Goh in August 2004 and became PAP's secretary general in December of the same year.

On April 20 this year, President S. R. Nathan dissolved Parliament on the advice of Prime Minister Lee and the government announced on the same day that the polling day for the next general election will be on May 6.

According to the Parliamentary Elections Act, there are Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) and Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) in the city state's general election.

Political parties need to field one candidate to contest a SMC and send a team of five or six candidates, including one from minority communities, to contest a GRC.

The Act stipulates that there shall at all times be at least eight SMCs, while the purpose of having GRCs, a practice began from 1988, is to ensure the representation of Members from the Malay, Indian and other minority communities in Parliament.

In this year's general election, there are altogether nine SMCs, nine five-member GRCs and five six-member GRCs, making the total number of elected MPs to be 84.

The identities of all the candidates, as well as the constituency in which each of them is fielded, are confirmed and publicized on nomination day, which is not less than nine days or more than eight weeks before the polling day.

Candidates are required to present their nomination papers, including certificate of eligibility, minority community certificate and political donations certificate, together with a deposit of 13,500 Singapore dollars (about 8,455 U.S. dollars), to the election officers on the day.

Candidates in such constituencies where there is no contest from other political parties will be declared elected MPs on nomination day.

If a political party gains more than half of the parliamentary seats on nomination day, it immediately becomes the ruling party and the polling will not be held as scheduled. Instead, by- elections will be held at a re-arranged date.

The period between the close of the nomination and the eve of polling day is the time for campaign, during which political parties may hold election rallies, conduct walkabouts and door-to- door visits in constituencies, as well as delivering television speeches, so far as they abide by strict rules on election campaigning.

Come polling day, eligible voters residing in contested constituencies will cast their votes at polling stations, which are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and the winners will become MPs in the new Parliament.

On April 27, nomination day of this year's election, the ruling PAP secured 37 of the 84 parliamentary seats in seven uncontested GRCs while the opposition parties, including the WP, the SDA and the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), fielded 47 candidates in all the other constituencies to challenge the PAP.

It is for the first time since 1988 that the PAP did not win a majority of the total seats to declare victory in the general election on nomination day.

More than 1.22 million voters, including 553 overseas voters, are expected to cast their votes at 422 polling stations islandwide on May 6.

According to the Parliamentary Elections Act, all Singapore citizens, aged 21 and above on 1 January 2006, who are ordinarily resident in the city state, are registered as voters in this year's general election. Nearly 2.16 million of Singapore's some 4 million population are eligible to vote in the election.

Source: Xinhua