THE Government's move to change the political system to provide for more diverse voices will give non-People's Action Party (PAP) members a larger share of Parliament.

They will take up at least 18 seats, making up one-fifth of the House, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Wednesday.

His announcement of the proposed changes is prompted by society's changing needs, with Singaporeans wanting more debate and greater political participation.

Hence, changes are slated for three areas: the Non-Constituency MPs (NCMPs), Nominated MPs (NMPs) plus the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and single-member ward schemes.

Besides the proposed political changes, Mr Lee also announced the formation of an Economic Strategies Committee to be headed by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. It will come up with new and creative ways to further grow the Singapore economy.

To effect the political changes, the law will be changed to guarantee the opposition parties nine seats in the House. These seats will be filled by either elected MPs or NCMPs, who are the losing opposition candidates with the highest percentage of the votes.

At the same time, the Constitution will be amended to raise the maximum number of NCMPs from six to nine.

In the current Parliament, there is only one NCMP: Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim.

The NMP change will make the 20-year-old scheme permanent via an amendment to the Constitution, allowing Parliament to automatically have up to nine unelected representatives from different sectors of society.

Now, after every election, the Government has to seek Parliament's approval for the scheme.