The PAP has governed the nation since it gained independence 50 years ago, but faces a challenge to its popularity as economic growth slows and…
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Conversation would flow, and Mr Lee would get a chance to see a different bit of the Singapore that he had built.
An influx of foreign workers and immigrants has seen the population surge from 4.17 million in 2004 to 5.47 million previous year.
He noted that in order to transform Singapore into what it is today, the Republic’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his team planned “beyond their terms, beyond their lifetimes” by nurturing the next generation of leaders and teaching their successors to do the same.
There is widespread speculation in the media and blogs that elections could be called next month, as the ruling party wants to take advantage of Singapore’s 50th year celebrations, the news agency said.
Analysts have said the People’s Action Party (PAP), which was founded by the prime minister’s father, the late Lee Kuan Yew, and has ruled since six years before independence in 1965, will be keen to tap national pride the August. 9 celebrations generated and improve on its performance in the last election.
The PAP has been introducing candidates in recent weeks, breaking from previous elections, where voters only found out who was running in their constituency on Nomination Day, set for September 1.
Lee, 63, called the upcoming election “critical” as it will allow him to choose the team that will lead the country for the next two decades.
The Electoral Boundaries Review Committee has drawn 89 seats from Singapore’s 29 constituencies.
All seats in the 99-member parliament will be up for election.
The opposition Workers’ Party now holds the other seven seats.
Of the current 86 elected members of parliament excluding the elder Lee, 79 are PAP lawmakers and the rest from the Workers’ Party.
“We have to do it together, so that we can keep Singapore special for many years to come”.
Lee announced plans to boost grants to make public housing, where more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans live, more affordable.
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“You will be determining the future for Singapore”. Nobody can be sure, he emphasized, that Singapore will still be doing well a further 50 years down the line.
