Singapore has dissolved its parliament and is set to go to the polls on May 3 for the city state’s 14th general election since independence.
Nomination day, when candidates enter the race, will be on April 23, marking the first day of official campaigning. After this, voters can expect a nine-day official campaigning period followed by a “cooling off day” the day before voting, the elections department has said.
The election will be Lawrence Wong’s first as prime minister as he and his band of “fourth-generation” 4G leaders seek a strong mandate from Singaporeans amid geopolitical turbulence and an ongoing trade war.
The Prime Minister’s Office said earlier on Tuesday that President Tharman Shanmugaratnam had dissolved parliament on Wong’s advice.
Singapore, a small and open economy whose trade is about three times its gross domestic product, adjusted its GDP growth forecast for 2025 downwards on Monday to between 0 and 2 per cent from 1 to 3 per cent, citing the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on global trade.
On Tuesday, Wong said on social media that the world was becoming more uncertain, unsettled and even unstable.
