Singaporean general election, 2001

Singaporean general election, 2001
Singapore
3 November 2001
84 seats (only 29 seats contested) to the Parliament of Singapore
43 seats needed for a majority
1 NCMP seat offered
Turnout 94.6%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Goh Chok Tong Chiam See Tong Low Thia Khiang
Party PAP SDA WP
Leader since 1992 2001 2001
Leader's seat Marine Parade GRC Potong Pasir SMC Hougang SMC
Last election 81 seats, 65.0% None 1 seat + 1 NCMP, 14.2%
Seats won 82 1 + 1 NCMP 1
Seat change Increase1 Increase1 Steady0
Popular vote 470,765 75,248 19,060
Percentage 75.3% 12.0%(total) / 27.6%(valid) 3.0%(total) / 39.3%(valid)
Swing Increase10.3% Increase12.0%/Increase27.6% Decrease11.2%/Increase1.7%

Results:
  People's Action Party
  Workers' Party of Singapore
  Singapore Democratic Alliance
Prime Minister before election

Goh Chok Tong
PAP

 Elected Prime Minister

Goh Chok Tong
PAP

Singapore
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Singapore
Constitution
Foreign relations

The Singaporean parliamentary general elections of 2001 were held on 3 November. The People's Action Party, the incumbent ruling party, won 82 out of 84 seats in the election, including 55 walkovers. Due to the large number of uncontested seats, only 675,306 of the 2,036,923 eligible voters (33.2%) actually voted.

Background and issues

The ruling PAP was facing one of the toughest hurdles in its history. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong originally intended for the election to take place in 2002, but in late 2001, Singapore was saddled with the worst economic crisis since independence, after the events of the 11 September attacks in the United States.

For the first time since 1963, a formal political umbrella emerged from within the opposition. The four-party Singapore Democratic Alliance was established with Chiam See Tong as chief, consisting of the Singapore People's Party he led, which was the leader party, National Solidarity Party (NSP), PKMS and Singapore Justice Party (SJP). NSP provided the bulk of nine candidates, SPP four and PKMS providing a required minority candidate.

Former WP Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam (J. B. Jeyaretnam), who lost his seat after being declared a bankrupt owing to lawsuits by PAP leaders, resigned from the party, citing disagreements with the present leadership. Sole WP MP Low Thia Khiang took over as secretary-general.

This election saw the end of four-member GRCs and a shortest campaigning period of 17 days after opening of the register of electors. A seat had been vacated in 1999 after the conviction of PAP MP Choo Wee Khiang over commercial crimes, but no by-election was held as the seat was within a GRC. Under the law, an entire electoral constituency, be it GRC or SMC, has to be vacated before a by-election is required, as was done during the Marine Parade GRC by-election of 1992.

Another increase of the election deposit amount this time was the most significant one in history, which almost doubled.

On nomination day, the sole WP GRC team was disqualified for filing incomplete papers in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency. Opposition parties ended up contesting only a-third of the seats, the lowest portion since 1968, which resulted in the largest number of walkovers for PAP in history.

WP's Low and SDA's Chiam retained their seats, but saw their winning margins slashed from the previous GE. With these two opposition wins, one NCMP seat was offered to and accepted by Steve Chia of SDA-NSP, who became the youngest and first ever non-WP NCMP.

Electoral boundaries

New MPs

Retiring MPs

In addition, a lot of PAP branches began to close down. These include -

Election results

PAP won a landslide victory and its best result since 1980. The party achieved its third highest score among the general elections it has contested, since 1959. The PAP's vote percentage of 75.3% signalled an overwhelming endorsement of the PAP to lead the nation out of the crisis that came at a time of great uncertainty over world security and the recession that came after 11/9. This was also the last time Goh Chok Tong lead the party into a general election.

 Summary of the 3 November 2001 Parliament of Singapore election results
Parties and alliances Leader Contested
seats		 Seats won Popular vote % +/-
People's Action Party Goh Chok Tong 84 82† 470,765 75.3%
+10.3%
Singapore Democratic Alliance Chiam See Tong 13 1 75,248 12.0%
-
Singapore Democratic Party Chee Soon Juan 11 0 50,607 8.1%
-2.5%
Workers' Party Low Thia Khiang 2 1 19,060 3.0%
-11.2%
Democratic Progressive Party Tan Lead Shake 2 0 5,334 0.9%
+0.2%
Independent 2 0 4,253 0.7%
-
Total 84 625,267 100.0 -
Spoilt votes 13,636 -
Did not vote 36,403 -
Total voting electorate 675,306 -
†includes uncontested victories

See also

References

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