![\"singapore\"](\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f-1024x557.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nLee, speaking live over national television, said he made the decision to call the general election because the COVID-19 situation is \u201crelatively stable\u201d and that the polls \u201cwill clear the decks” and give the new government a fresh mandate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The polls will see the election of 93 Members of Parliament (MPs), an increase from the previous 89 elected MPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The representatives will be for 14 Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) and 17 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon after the dissolution of Parliament, the Elections Department announced that polling will be on July 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current government is approaching the end of its five-year term. Under the constitution, elections must be held at the latest by April 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That is less than a year away,” said Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“An election now \u2013 when things are relatively stable \u2013 will clear the decks, and give the new government a fresh five-year mandate,” said Lee, adding that “it can then focus on this national agenda and the difficult decisions it will have to make and to carry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee noted that Singapore is not the first to hold an election during the COVID-19 pandemic as other countries have done so, such as South Korea, Taiwan and several European countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“With our arrangements and precautions in place, I am confident we can hold a proper and safe election,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singapore’s COVID-19 infection tally stands at 42,432 cases as of today, the vast majority being foreign workers living in dormitories. The first COVID-19 case was detected on Jan 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The republic has so far classified 1,824 of its cases as community-linked, 581 as imported cases and 39,908 involving foreign workers in dorms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 84\u00a0percent of the total number of patients have\u00a0fully recovered\u00a0and been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, 26 people have died in the city-state from complications due to COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SINGAPORE, June\u00a023 \u00a0— Singapore today dissolved Parliament for a general election on July 10, with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f.jpg",1090,593,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f-300x163.jpg",300,163,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f-768x418.jpg",640,348,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f-1024x557.jpg",640,348,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f.jpg",1090,593,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f.jpg",1090,593,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f.jpg",1090,593,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f.jpg",1024,557,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/f641d970eac1eec9c2ad6d2e8c6cc3025ef1c85de8b7f.jpg",720,392,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Politics<\/a> World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4602,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599\/revisions\/4602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}