Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s People's Action Party (PAP) won the elections, taking 83 of the 93 seats at stake (see note 1). The Workers' Party (WPS, the main opposition party led by Mr. Pritam Singh) took the 10 remaining seats while the Progress Singapore Party (PSP, founded in 2019 by former PAP MP Tan Cheng Bock) received two non-constituency seats.

On 23 June, Prime Minster Lee announced early elections (see note 2), stating they should be held when “things are relatively stable”, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Halimah Yacob dissolved the outgoing Parliament later on the same day. During the election campaign, the major parties focused on the economy and measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The PAP, which ran on the government records, promised job creation. The WPS pledged to provide dignified jobs for workers and tackle the cost of living, Several special measures were applied, such as an increase in the number of polling stations and two-hour slots for voting to avoid crowded polling stations. Mobile polling teams took ballot boxes to citizens who were in quarantine.

Note 1:
The number of directly elected seats increased from 89 to 93 in 2020 as recommended by the country’s Electoral Boundaries Review Committee in March 2020. In accordance with the constitutional amendments, passed by Parliament in 2016, up to 12 non-constituency members (instead of nine previously) can be appointed from among unsuccessful opposition candidates who obtained the highest percentage of votes in a general election so as to ensure a minimum number of opposition representatives in Parliament. Since the Workers’ Party won 10 directly elected seats in 2020, only two non-constituency members were nominated after the 2020 elections. The directly elected members and the non-constituency members serve a five-year term.
Parliament also includes up to nine members nominated by the President. They serve a term of two and a half years. At the moment of the first session of the newly elected Parliament, held on 24 August, the President had not nominated any members.

Note 2:
In accordance with Article 65 (4) of the Constitution, Parliament’s term lasts for five years from the date of its first sitting (held on 15 January 2016 for the outgoing legislature). Article 66 stipulates “There shall be a general election at such time, within 3 months after every dissolution of Parliament”. For the outgoing legislature, those three months were to have fallen between April and July 2021.