Singapore

Parliament

Background

Singapore’s unicameral Parliament is an assembly of up to 99 members.

Singapore is divided into a mix of single-member electoral divisions and ‘group representation’ multi-member electoral divisions. As at 2011 this includes 12 single member divisions and 15 group representation divisions, electing 87 members in total.

The members in the 12 single member divisions are directly elected by the plurality voting method.

In the 15 group representation divisions between 4 and 6 members are elected, in all totalling 75 members. In each group representation division a list of members from a single party’s ticket is elected together, with the successful party chosen by the plurality voting method.

A ticket for a group representation division must include at least one candidate from an ethnic minority specified for that division. The executive government determines the boundaries of divisions, which divisions are single-member and which are group representation divisions, the number of members elected in each group representation division, and the specific ethnic minorities that must be nominated on the ticket for each group representation division.

In addition to the elected members, up to 6 ‘non-constituency’ members may be appointed to the Parliament to provide some representation of members from political parties not forming the government. This rule was adopted in the context that Singapore’s party configuration is an extremely strong one-party-dominance system.

The persons eligible to be appointed as non-constituency members are those candidates not from the governing party who polled at least 15% of the vote in their electoral division.

The number of members to be appointed is determined after the number of elected non-government members is known, and the available places are filled from among the eligible candidates in descending order of their vote shares in their constituencies.

Finally, up to 9 unelected ‘nominated members’ may also be appointed to Parliament after the election. A select committee of Parliament invites nominations from the public and makes recommendations for appointment under this system, generally from civic or professional persons not active in party politics who have ‘rendered distinguished service’ to the nation or ‘distinguished themselves’ in their field of expertise.

Terms for ordinary and non-constituency members are up to 5 years. Terms for nominated members are limited to 2½ years.

Elections

Overview

Inequality in the effective influence of voters caused by variations in Parliament division enrolments has been significant in recent elections, with the standard deviation of variations compared to the mean enrolment being xxx% in 2015.

[nomination openness – party configurations]

[summary of results]

Inequality in the effective influence of voters caused by variations in division turnouts (formal votes) has been significant in recent elections, with the standard deviation of variations compared to the mean formal vote being xxx% in 2015.

[inequality by margins]

Specific elections

2015

Data

Sources

[data source – data completeness – anomalous contests]

Dataset

[Datasets are not yet published]

• Singapore election results – 2015