After being returned to power with its most emphatic general election victory since 2001, Singapore’s ruling People’s Action party must now determine how far it pushes ahead with its populist policies in the face of a slowing economy.
Having pocketed 83 of the 89 parliamentary seats and seen its vote share bounce back from a historic low of 60 per cent in 2011 to nearly 70 per cent, the PAP will now govern the Southeast Asian city-state for the next five years.
Learning from its 2011 poll punishment, a chastened PAP spent the next four years attempting to address voters’ hot-button issues: reducing the number of incoming immigrants, handing cash to the elderly, constructing more homes to burst a potential house price bubble and improving creaking transport infrastructure.