Singapore redistricts ahead of a general election later this year

SINGAPORE — Singapore has redrawn its electoral boundaries, the Elections Department said on Tuesday, a step that is typically taken as an indicator that the government is getting ready to call a general election.

Singapore is required to hold elections by November 2025, though the prime minister may call earlier polls.

The vote will be the first test at the polls for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who succeeded long-serving premier Lee Hsien Loong as leader of the People’s Action Party in May 2024.

While the PAP is virtually certain to dominate and secure most seats, as it has in every vote since Singapore became a sovereign nation in 1965, scrutiny will be on its share of the popular vote following one of its poorest electoral showings in the last contest in 2020.

In February, Wong presented to Singaporeans what some analysts described as “a full-blown election budget,” full of goodies ahead of the polls.

Tuesday’s report on the new electoral boundaries is a closely watched event as polling day in previous general elections followed months after its release.

The report was submitted to Wong last Friday and the government has accepted the recommendations, the election commission added.

Walkaway election will have 4 more seats than to the last vote in 2020, when 97 lawmakers had been elected: and 15 single-member electoral divisions: and 18 divisions – at 4 or 5 members each.