This is the second consecutive general election in which the PAP had\u00a0fielded candidates in all 31 electoral divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"pap\"](\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/922fa6dcd7df7ed21bd56515fb65e0625f090b551f682-1024x575.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIn the 2015 general election, which saw all seats contested for the first time since independence in 1965, PAP swept 83 of the 89 seats, winning 69.9 percent of the popular vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 18th General Election for Singapore, and the 13th since its independence, was held in the \u201cnew normal\u201d with safe-distancing regulations and restrictions amidst the prevailing COVID-19 situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a virtual press conference held early Saturday, Lee said: \u201cOverall, I am satisfied with the results of this election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe (PAP) have obtained a clear mandate; 61 percent of the popular vote. We garnered 83 of the 93 seats contested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe results reflect the wide support for PAP. Singaporeans understand what is at stake and why we must unite for the sake of Singapore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This election was dubbed \u201ccritical\u201d for the republic in facing the challenge of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee called on Singaporeans to set aside their differences and work together to take Singapore safely out of the pandemic crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe serious challenges that we face require a nationwide response. Let us move forward together as one Singapore team for our lives, our jobs and our future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee congratulated the Workers\u2019 Party for retaining its\u00a0six seats in the five-member Aljunied\u00a0GRC (group representation constituency) and Hougang SMC (single-member constituency)\u00a0and winning the new four-member\u00a0Sengkang GRC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PAP won all the four new SMCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A solo independent candidate and 11 political parties, including the PAP, competed for 17 GRCs and 14 SMCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the close of polling, a total of 2,535,565 votes were cast, inclusive of the 45,772 rejected votes, according to the Elections Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The votes came from\u00a095.63 percent of the 2,651,435 registered electors and were slightly lower than the\u00a0figure reported at 8 pm Friday, which was based on the summation of estimates received from 1,100 polling stations, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As at 8 pm Friday, the department said the turnout was higher than that of the 2015 General Election, which saw votes cast by 2.3 million voters or 93.56 percent of the registered voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The polling hours were extended until 10 pm because there were still a number of polling stations with long queues, attributed to the COVID-19 precautionary measures put in place to ensure a safe general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was seen as the popularity of the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party (PSP) failed to bring to Parliament any of its 24 candidates, the second largest group after the Workers\u2019 Party\u2019s 21 candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of the other parties, namely the Singapore Democratic Party, Peoples Voice,\u00a0National Solidarity Party, Reform Party, Singapore People’s Party, People’s Power Party, Red Dot United, and Singapore Democratic Alliance, are represented in Parliament either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SINGAPORE, July 11 — The People’s Action Party (PAP) retained power in Singapore’s intensely-contested general election…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia","category-politics","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","newsium-slider-full":"","newsium-featured":"","newsium-medium":""},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Asia<\/a> Politics<\/a> World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4996","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=4996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4998,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4996\/revisions\/4998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}