Singapore Parliament releases seating plan for 15th term: Find out who is sitting where

SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will be flanked by his deputy Gan Kim Yong and Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam when

Parliament reopens on Sept 5

.

The next closest to him are Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Coordinating Minister for Public Services Chan Chun Sing and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Ong Ye Kung.

This is a switch-up from the previous term of Parliament, when PM Wong was seated between SM Lee and then Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.

Parliament on Aug 21 released the seating plan for the 15th term on its

website,

showing the designated spots for the 99 MPs in the House.

The seats have been allocated as per tradition.

On the right side of the Speaker is where the Government sits – this means members of the Cabinet and political office-holders.

In the front row, PM Wong takes the middle spot, nine seats from the Speaker.

On his right is Deputy Prime Minister Gan, while on his left is Mr Shanmugam.

The remaining Cabinet ministers fill out the rest of the row, which has 18 seats in total.

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah,

who is Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, is seated closest to the Speaker.

The senior ministers of state take up the remaining spots on the right side of the Speaker, followed by the ministers of state and senior parliamentary secretaries.

There are several seats left on this side of the House, which are filled by first-term MPs.

On the left side of the Speaker,

Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh

is seated directly across PM Wong. The Workers’ Party chief sits where the “shadow Cabinet” would sit in the United Kingdom. Singapore’s parliamentary system is based on the Westminster model in the UK.

Surrounding Mr Singh in the first row are the chairpersons of the government parliamentary committees.

These are groups of PAP backbenchers that scrutinise government policy. There are a total of 12 committees that are broadly mapped to the existing ministries of the day, and generally serve through a whole parliamentary term.

A

fresh slate of 12 MPs was chosen in July

to head the committees.

Labour chief Ng Chee Meng is also in this row.

The rest of the PAP and WP MPs fill out the left side of the House.

In the 15th Parliament, there are 87 PAP MPs and 12 WP MPs.

Of the 87 ruling party politicians, 24 are newly elected from the May 3 polls. This comes after 20 retired at the recent general election.

For the WP, five are new faces, including Non-Constituency MPs (NCMPs) Eileen Chong and Andre Low.

The NCMPs are seated at the end of the third row on the left of the Speaker.

There are a total of 13 seats left, mostly in the fourth rows, and they will likely be eventually allocated to Nominated MPs.

The WP’s team of 12 is its largest-ever contingent in Parliament. The opposition party had 10 elected MPs after the 2020 election and gained two NCMPs seats this round.

With a crop of 99 MPs – 97 elected at the May 3 polls and two NCMPs who were later appointed – the upcoming term of Parliament is slated to be Singapore’s largest. The 14th term of Parliament had 93 elected seats, while the previous term had 89 elected seats.

These figures do not include Nominated MPs, who are typically selected some time after Parliament reconvenes. A selection process will be carried out, with applications open to the public and various groups. Up to nine Nominated MPs can be appointed for a 2½-year term.

The seating plan is not set in stone for the rest of the term. It is subject to changes such as promotions – when backbenchers are appointed as political office-holders, or resignations.

All the MPs will be sworn in after Parliament reopens at 5pm on Sept 5, and the Speaker of Parliament will also be elected. Mr Seah Kian Peng, who has served in the role since 2023, will be

nominated for re-election.

Sept 5 is also the day of the President’s Address. President Tharman Shanmugaratnam is scheduled to deliver a speech on behalf of the Government that will set out the agenda, priorities and plans for its upcoming five-year term.

This will be followed by a debate on his address from Sept 22 to 26.

Parliament last sat in April before dissolving on April 15 ahead of the general election on May 3.