A new normal in the House a year after GE2025; external challenges take centre stage

SINGAPORE – A year has passed since the 2025 General Election, where the PAP won a strong mandate amid a shift in the balance of power in the Opposition, and a challenging external environment.

The ruling party was led into the May 3 polls by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who in his first election as head of government, brought in the largest-ever crop of new faces.

He made clear after the win that it was time to get to work – the world was becoming dangerous, and the team had much to do to secure the nation’s future.

On the opposition side of the House, only the Workers’ Party remained in Parliament – the Progress Singapore Party did not manage to maintain its presence.

A year later, observers say the main clashes between the PAP and the WP have been over matters like the role of race and religion in politics, rather than policy issues.

Meanwhile, the Government has continued to move legislation to advance its policy agenda – passing a Budget to push national artificial intelligence adoption, and laws strengthening coastal protection and combating online harms.

At the same time, external pressures have come to the fore in recent months, and the energy crisis stemming from the conflict in the Middle East has resulted in higher prices for petrol and food.

With the global situation still in flux, how both parties respond to this, as well as other economic challenges like job disruptions from artificial intelligence, will be closely watched by voters for the rest of the term, observers added.

As for the tone of engagement in the House, it has become less confrontational since sittings resumed last September, they noted.

Independent political observer Felix Tan said the tone is more calibrated than the previous Parliament, with debates feeling “somewhat contained” as a result.

A notable absence from the House has been the PSP, which failed to retain its two Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) seats. They were held by Mr Leong Mun Wai and Ms Hazel Poa, with Mr Leong frequently jousting with ruling party MPs over a range of issues, including immigration.

Said former PAP MP Inderjit Singh: “The WP continues to take a measured approach while in the past, the PSP was a lot more aggressive in challenging the Government.”

The PAP was returned to power after the May 3, 2025, polls with 87 MPs. The ruling party retained all its constituencies, and improved its national vote share from 61.23 per cent in the 2020 General Election to 65.57 per cent.

Meanwhile, the WP held all 10 seats that it won in 2020 and gained two NCMP seats – its largest ever contingent in the House.

The return of only two parties to Parliament suggests voters have consolidated around the PAP and the WP as the parties capable of fielding effective MPs, said Dr Teo Kay Key, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

Both parties look to be in a somewhat stronger position on paper after the election, although the balance of influence has not shifted much in practice, said Dr Tan.

Former Nominated MP Zulkifli Baharudin said the PAP is consolidating its position in Parliament, citing how PM Wong has brought new MPs into political office, with some of them helming key announcements.

For example, Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow – a former permanent secretary who left the civil service before the May polls – presented the Government’s April support package in Parliament.

This was PM Wong’s first election as head of government. He became prime minister in May 2024, and assumed the post of party leader in November that year before leading the PAP into the polls.

The PAP’s fourth generation leaders – who picked PM Wong as their leader in 2022 – have taken over the reins of government in incrementally significant ways since the 2020 General Election, said Singapore Management University (SMU) law don Eugene Tan.

So far, they have run the government in a way that has signalled continuity, said Mr Singh.

Costs and the economy

The PAP went straight to work after its re-election, noted IPS’ Dr Teo.

She cited moves to deal with economic issues as well as more structural problems like the falling fertility rate, which hit a new low of 0.87 in 2025.

The Government unveiled a national AI push at the Budget in February, and has moved legislation to beef up coastal protection, guard against workplace discrimination and tighten control over vapes.

It has also created a new Online Safety Commission, set to be fully operational by June 2026, to deal with online harms, and announced coming revisions to social policy such as education.

The WP has not opposed any legislation moved by the Government so far, although it did propose amendments to the new laws on online safety – asking for more transparency and oversight in how these will be executed. These were not accepted.

One distinctive debate was on the Government’s Budget marksmanship after the PAP announced its first spending plan for the term, said IPS senior research fellow Gillian Koh.

During that debate, WP Aljunied GRC MP Gerald Giam pointed out that the surplus was more than double the Government’s projection of $6.81 billion, and asked to re-evaluate the necessity of raising the goods and services tax in 2023 and 2024.

In response, PAP MPs defended the surplus as “fiscal dry powder” in the event of a crisis.

The WP supported the Budget despite its concerns.

The Government has also moved to cushion the impact of the energy crisis. In April, it announced a support package of nearly $1 billion – with a mix of broad and targeted measures – to help Singaporeans deal with higher prices.

The WP did not oppose the Government’s April support package, but probed the PAP on why some policy choices were made over others – for instance, the Government’s choice to provide targeted support for platform workers and taxi drivers instead of a broad fuel subsidy.

Mr Zulkifli said the April move was also aimed at consolidating support and to tell the public that the ruling party is able to respond to the problems of the day.

IPS’ Dr Teo said the cost of living will likely be the issue that is top of mind for voters because of its persistence.

The Government has warned that higher prices due to the Iran conflict and its knock-on effects are unlikely to go away soon, and headline inflation climbed to 1.8 per cent in March.

Dr Teo added that the electorate will also be looking at policy moves targeting two groups: mid-career Singaporeans affected by job disruption, and fresh graduates who could be the most affected by the advent of AI.

Looking ahead, SMU’s Associate Professor Tan said the Government has its work cut out for it after its successful handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout.

Each time the Government reaches a new high, the expectation is that it will outdo itself at the next challenge, he said. “Will it be able to handle the polycrises better than the Covid-19 pandemic amid the passing of the global order that Singapore had thrived under?”

But the crisis also presents a challenge for the WP.

Mr Zulkifli noted: “This crisis is going to be a real test for everybody, including the Opposition, and it is harder for them because they are not in government.”

One could see this as not the right time to challenge the Government due to the national crisis. But if the Opposition does nothing, it could also become irrelevant, he said.

Clashing over politics

While the WP has continued to question the Government and tout policy moves, it has been bogged down by the fallout from former WP MP Raeesah Khan’s lies to Parliament in 2021, said Prof Eugene Tan.

It resulted in the party’s chief Pritam Singh being convicted for lying to a parliamentary committee investigating the matter. After he lost the appeal against his conviction, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah moved a motion in Parliament in January to find Mr Pritam Singh unsuitable to hold the post of Leader of the Opposition (LO).

The motion was debated in Parliament, followed by a vote where the 11 WP MPs present expressed their dissent – while the PAP and Nominated MPs agreed. Acting on this motion and Mr Pritam Singh’s convictions, PM Wong later removed the WP chief as LO.

WP chairwoman Sylvia Lim argued then that the motion was politically motivated, while the PAP said it was necessary for the House to express a view on Mr Pritam Singh’s conduct as he held an important political office.

Mr Pritam Singh’s convictions also triggered an internal disciplinary process by the WP, which on April 30 ended with the party issuing a formal letter of reprimand to its chief.

Besides Mr Pritam Singh’s conduct, the PAP also pressed the WP over its stance on race and religion in politics.

In a ministerial statement during October’s Parliament sitting, Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam raised the issue of the WP’s relationship with self-styled preacher Noor Deros.

Mr Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Home Affairs, said the WP had not adequately disavowed Mr Noor’s calls for Singaporeans to vote along ethnic lines in support of WP Malay/Muslim candidates in the lead-up to the 2025 election.

Mr Pritam Singh accepted that his party could have been clearer in its rejection of Mr Noor, but also said the WP did not want to draw attention to a “nobody whom no one really knows”. He added that his party fundamentally agreed that race and religion should not be mixed with politics.

The WP chief also initially said Mr Noor had “gatecrashed” the meeting, but at the November sitting clarified that Mr Noor had been invited by an associate of WP vice-chairman Faisal Manap.

SMU’s Prof Tan said: “The WP have never been under siege in the way they are now since they made inroads from the 2006 General Election.”

Both sides also sought to shape voters’ expectations of the Opposition’s role in Singapore politics early in the term.

In September 2025, Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in Parliament that the WP should offer a “real” alternative vision for Singapore with alternative policies. He added that while the party has done so occasionally in the past, it does not have a coherent or consistent approach.

The WP leadership largely disagreed with his assessment. Mr Pritam Singh said the party plans to primarily focus on “the function that Parliament demands of us – checking the Government’s policies and actions”.

Both parties are expected to continue to make their case to voters in the run-up to the next election, but ultimately, how they address cost pressures and job security will likely be the most politically consequential, said Dr Felix Tan.

SMU’s Prof Eugene Tan said: “The ruling PAP must present a compelling narrative and tangible good outcomes on key issues of the day. For the WP, it is about maintaining their cachet as the Opposition party to vote for.”