2001 Singapore General Election
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Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
on 3 November 2001.
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
S.R. Nathan dissolved parliament on 18 October 2001 on the advice of
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Goh Chok Tong Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Parliament of Singapore, ...
. The ruling
People's Action Party The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...
(PAP) won 82 of the 84 elected seats in Parliament. Due to the large number (51) of uncontested seats, only 675,306 of the 2,036,923 eligible voters (33.2%) had an opportunity to vote. As of the recent election in 2020, this was the most recent, and fourth overall (third consecutive) election PAP returned to power on nomination day with a majority of uncontested walkovers. This election marked the first time that total eligible voter population exceeded the 2 million mark.


Background

The ruling PAP's secretary-general and Prime Minister
Goh Chok Tong Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Parliament of Singapore, ...
initially scheduled for the election to be held in 2002, but pushed to November after Singapore faced an economic crisis due to the events of
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
in the United States. For the first time since 1963, a formal political umbrella emerged from within the opposition. The four-party
Singapore Democratic Alliance The Singapore Democratic Alliance (abbreviation: SDA) is a political coalition between the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and Singapore Justice Party (SJP) in Singapore. History Prior to the founding in 2001, then-opposition Member of Parli ...
(SDA), which consist of the leader party
Singapore People's Party The Singapore People's Party (abbreviation: SPP) is a political party in Singapore. History SPP was founded on 21 November 1994 by Sin Kek Tong, who led a pro-Chiam See Tong faction out of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). Over two years, ...
(SPP), the National Solidarity Party (NSP),
Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura The Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura ( abbreviation: PKMS; English: Singapore Malay National Organisation) is a political party in Singapore. History The origins of Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura (PKMS) were rooted in the Singap ...
(PKMS) and
Singapore Justice Party The Singapore Justice Party (abbreviation: SJP) is a political party in Singapore. Background The party has been based mostly in Marine Parade district of Singapore since the party has taken part in general elections after 1988 by fielding its c ...
(SJP), was led by
Chiam See Tong Chiam See Tong (; born 12 March 1935) is a Singaporean retired politician and lawyer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Potong Pasir SMC between 1984 and 2011. He was one of the two opposition MPs in Parliament. Lawyer by profess ...
. SDA fielded the most candidates in the election, where NSP provided the bulk of nine candidates, SPP with four, and PKMS providing a required minority candidate. Former Workers' Party (WP) Non-Constituency Member of Parliament
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam ( ta, ஜோசுவா பெஞ்சமின் ஜெயரத்தினம்; 5 January 1926 – 30 September 2008), better known as J. B. Jeyaretnam or by his initials JBJ, was a Singaporean politician, law ...
, who lost his seat after being declared a bankrupt owing to lawsuits by PAP leaders, resigned from the party, citing disagreements with the present leadership. The only WP Member of Parliament,
Low Thia Khiang Low Thia Khiang (; born 5 September 1956) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Secretary-General of the Workers' Party (WP) between 2001 and 2018. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hougang SMC between 1991 and 2011 and Aljun ...
took over as secretary-general. During nomination day, WP was nominated on only two wards (Hougang and Nee Soon East SMC), as their sole GRC team who attempt to nominate in
Aljunied Group Representation Constituency The Aljunied Group Representation Constituency is a five-member group representation constituency (GRC) in the north-eastern and eastern region of Singapore. The GRC consists of five divisions: Eunos, Bedok Reservoir-Punggol, Kaki Bukit, Sera ...
was disqualified for filing incomplete papers. A seat had been vacated in 1999 after the conviction of
Jalan Besar GRC Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency is a four-member Group Representation Constituency composed of several city suburbs surrounding the Central Area of Singapore. There are four wards in the GRC: Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng, Kolam Ayer, Wham ...
's MP
Choo Wee Khiang Choo Wee Khiang ( zh, s=朱为强, p=Zhū Wéiqiáng) is a Singaporean former politician. A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Whampoa division of Jalan Besar GRC bet ...
over commercial crimes, but no by-election was held as the seat was within a GRC. Under the law, an entire electoral constituency (for both single member and GRC seats) has to be vacated before a by-election could be called, as this was done during the Marine Parade GRC by-election of 1992.


Campaign

This election saw its shortest campaigning period of 17 days after opening of the register of electors, as well as the absence of four-member GRCs from the electoral map (four-member GRCs would reappear again in the 2011 elections, in nearly a decade later). Another increase of the election deposit amount this time was the most significant one in history, which almost doubled. The result saw WP's Low and SDA's Chiam retaining their seats, but saw their winning margins slashed from the 1997. With these two opposition wins, one NCMP seat was offered to and accepted by
Steve Chia ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...
of Singapore Democratic Alliance, who became the youngest and first-ever non-WP NCMP.


Chee Soon Juan incident

Singapore Democratic Party The Singapore Democratic Party (abbreviation: SDP) is a politcal party in Singapore. The party was founded on 6 August 1980 by Chiam See Tong. During the 1991 general election, Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen won Bukit Gombak SMC and Nee ...
(SDP) leader Chee Soon Juan came under fire in the media when he encountered Prime Minister Goh while campaigning at a hawker centre. He used a megaphone to ask Goh, "Where is the $18 billion that you have lent to (Indonesian President)
Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...
?". Goh and Senior Minister
Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...
sued Chee for defamation shortly after the election. Chee lost the lawsuits and was ordered to pay damages of S$300,000 to Goh and S$200,000 to Lee. On 10 February 2006, Chee was declared bankrupt by the High Court after failing to pay the damages owed to Goh and Lee, and was unable to stand in the elections held later May that year, until on 23 November 2012 where Chee was discharged from bankruptcy, and later returned to participate in the
2015 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in the year 2015. Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burun ...
.


Timeline


Electoral boundaries


Outgoing/New MPs

There were a total of 40 (25 PAP) candidates making their political debut in the 2001 election. Among the new faces were
Tharman Shanmugaratnam Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Tamil: தர்மன் சண்முகரத்தினம்; born 25 February 1957) is a Singaporean politician and economist who has been serving as Senior Minister of Singapore since 2019 and has also been Co ...
and
Halimah Yacob Halimah Yacob (Jawi script: ; born 23 August 1954) is a Singaporean politician and former lawyer who has been serving as the eighth president of Singapore since 2017. Prior to her presidency, she was the country's Speaker of the Parliament of S ...
who would later become future Senior Minister and
President of Singapore The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore. The role of the president is to safeguard the Reserves of the Government of Singapore, reserves and the integrity of the Singapore Civil Service, public serv ...
, respectively. 24 incumbent MPs retired prior to the announcements. 15 candidates outside PAP were also new, among which new faces include Chee Siok Chin, sister of the SDP's leader Chee Soon Juan, as well as
Desmond Lim Desmond Lim Bak Chuan ( zh, s=林睦荃, p=Lín Mùquán; born 1967) is a Singaporean politician. He was formerly the president of the opposition Singapore Justice Party (SJP), which joined forces with three other opposition parties ( SPP, NSP ...
, who would later lead the newly formed SDA in future years, and a future
Perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates' existence lies in the fact that in some countries, there are no laws that limit a number of times a person can ...
Ooi Boon Ewe. # Richard Hu initially announced that he would seek another term in leading a team for the new Holland–Bukit Panjang GRC, but the idea was scrapped.


Results

PAP won a landslide victory and its best result since 1980. The party achieved its third highest score among the general elections it has contested since 1959. The PAP's vote percentage of 75.3% signalled an overwhelming endorsement of the PAP to lead the nation out of the crisis that came at a time of great uncertainty over world security and the recession that came after the September 11 attacks.


By constituency


Notes


References

*"Hsien Loong: Election soon". (8 November 2005). ''
New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...
'', p. 31.


External links


Singapore Elections Webpage
{{Singaporean elections
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
2001 elections in Asia
General election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
November 2001 events in Asia