List of political parties in Singapore

History

Pre-independence

Amongst the oldest parties, the Malay Union, traced its history back to 14 May 1926, was initially a non-political association as the party only participated in the 1955 election. The Progressive Party and Labour Party, both established in the late 1940s, were some of the pioneering local establishments, with the PP the only party to contest in the first elections in 1948, and the LP coming on board in 1951. By 1955, the fledgling British colony had seven parties contesting, and reached a pinnacle of 13 parties in 1959. A total of three parties were established in the 1940s, 12 in the 1950s and five in the 1960s.

Post-independence

20th century

Post-independence Singapore saw the dominance of the People's Action Party, which first came into power in 1959. On 16 May 1960, a new Societies Ordinance was passed, and in December 1966, local parties were forbidden from being affiliated to foreign ones. This directly impacted the handful of small parties with links to Malaysia, most of which renamed themselves and/or cut formal foreign ties. The PAP's dominance stemming from Singapore's economic advancement further weakened the smaller opposition parties, with a majority of Singaporeans voting for the PAP in subsequent elections.

Still, new parties continued to be established, and to date, there are therefore a total of 30 registered political parties today, of which ten have never contested in an election, 13 parties have officially dissolved with most through mergers with other parties. A few opposition parties, those of Workers' Party and Singapore Democratic Party, had gained some success towards the 80s with the captures of its safe seat of Hougang and Potong Pasir respectively, with the former went with further success heading towards the 21st century.

21st century

Over the years, alliances between political parties existed, however short-lived. Presently, three functioning multi-party alliances were formed, with the oldest surviving political umbrella being the Singapore Democratic Alliance, which was formed on 3 July 2001, initially composed of the Singapore People's Party (SPP), National Solidarity Party (NSP), Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura and the Justice Party, Singapore, with the SPP being the lead party. The vision was to bring all opposition parties under one banner to counter the PAP's dominance, but it was met with limited success due to opposition infighting. The NSP left the alliance in 2007, and in 2010, the SPP itself left when there was internal disagreements over the SPP's attempts to bring in the newly formed Reform Party (RP).

Many party members have resigned from its former parties and later formed newer parties over the years following the aftermath of its respective general elections, notably People's Power Party (PPP) formed by former WP and NSP member Goh Meng Seng in 2015, the Peoples Voice (PV) by former-National Solidarity Party's Secretary general Lim Tean in 2018, the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) in 2019 by former People's Action Party Member of Parliament Tan Cheng Bock, Red Dot United (RDU) in 2020 by former PSP members Ravi Philemon and Michelle Lee, and Singapore United Party (SUP) by former RP members in 2021.

Talks on a formation of alliance sparked prior to the 2020 election when four parties, Singaporeans First, PPP, RP and DPP, planned to create one alliance of their own, but ended up applying for the SDA on 1 April and has never materialized after SingFirst was dissolved and DPP withdrew from participating in that election. Two other political umbrellas were formed over a span of four months in 2023. In June, People's Alliance for Reform (PAR) was established from the parties of PV, RP, PPP and DPP, though PPP later withdrew from the party months later. In October, The Coalition was established with SPP, National Solidarity Party (NSP), Red Dot United (RDU) and Singapore United Party (SUP).

Legislation

Under the current legislation, all political parties (termed "Political Associations") must be registered under the Societies Act. As such, the following rules pertaining to political associations apply:

• All members of political parties must be Singaporean citizens.
• Political Association must not be affiliated or connected with any organisation outside Singapore. The fact that a political association uses a name or symbol which is the same as that of an organisation outside Singapore shall be deemed to be sufficient evidence that the political association has an affiliation or connection with that organisation. The government has the power to dissolve the party if it contravenes the above rules, or any other rule applicable to all forms of registered societies.

Under the Political Donations Act which came into force on 15 February 2001, Political Associations are also barred from accepting any donation in cash or kind from impermissible donors, or from anonymous donors where the value exceeds S$5,000. The government announced that it was to "prevent foreigners from interfering in domestic politics through the financial support for any association's cause", and cited an example of a case in 1959 when S$700,000 was sent to Chew Swee Kee, then Education Minister from the Singapore People's Alliance by a "neighbouring intelligence service in a "black operation" against the interests of Singapore". Another case was also cited pertaining to foreign financial support for Francis Seow of the Workers' Party in 1988.

The People's Action Party donated $20,000 to Australian political parties through (Singtel-owned) Optus in 2010, although the motives and details of the donation remain unverified.

Political parties

There have been a total of 43 political parties (not including Malaysia's parties, those contested in both Malaysia and Singapore elections, or those which contested during Singapore's merger with Malaysia) in Singapore.

Party or Alliance active Party or Alliance active, but collated to another party or alliance Party or Alliance dissolved Party or Alliance registered, but is yet to contest Party or Alliance's status unknown

Current political parties

Shirt colours

Main article: Political colour

The candidates and supporters of the various political parties tend to wear the following shirt colours while making their rounds in various wards or campaigning.

Past political parties

Other defunct parties

• Malayan Communist Party
• Malayan Democratic Union (dissolved in 1948)

References

References

1. "NSP Secretary General Lim Tean quits party suddenly".
2. "Former opposition party chief Lim Tean forms new political party, People's Voice".
3. "Lim Tean resigns as NSP secretary-general".
4. "Tan Cheng Bock files application to form new political party".
5. "Former PSP members file application to form new political party Red Dot United".
6. "Red Dot United gets approval for registration as political party, set to take part in coming GE".
7. (5 January 2021). "Former Reform Party chairman Andy Zhu and others form new political party, Singapore United Party".
8. Koh, Fabian. (2020-01-03). "Four opposition parties including SingFirst and Reform Party to form alliance for general election". [[The Straits Times]].
9. (1 April 2020). "Singapore GE: Four parties apply to join Singapore Democratic Alliance instead of registering new alliance".
10. Koh, Fabian. (1 June 2020). "Singapore GE: SDA puts on hold membership applications from four parties, scuppering plans for opposition bloc under its banner".
11. (1 June 2020). "You can't sit with us: SDA thwarts opposition parties' hope of contesting GE together".
12. (22 June 2020). "Alliance deal off: PPP, RP, SingFirst and DPP to link up informally instead, says Goh Meng Seng". Today.
13. Ho, Grace. (6 June 2023). "Opposition alliance in S'pore: Political reality or pipe dream?".
14. Wong, Pei Ting. (22 February 2025). "People's Power Party withdraws from four-party opposition alliance led by Lim Tean".
15. (28 October 2023). "Four opposition parties form coalition ahead of next GE".
16. "Ministry of Home Affairs - Introduction of the Political Donations Act".
17. (1 February 2010). "Mayne digs some donations data dirt".
18. "Political Parties and their Abbreviation".
19. "Registry of Societies".
20. "United People's Front (UPF) general secretary Harbans Singh arriving at the nomination centre at Victoria School to file his papers".
21. "Singapore Indian Congress".
22. "United Singapore Democrats, The".