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| Polling Day Singapore 2011 |
President S.R. Nathan dissolved parliament on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the government said today in an e-mailed statement.
Inflation, immigration and rising property prices are among issues that are expected to be addressed during campaigning and at rallies around the island of 5.1 million people, of which more than a third are foreigners. The economy grew at an unprecedented pace last year and the government said in February it will give cash to all adult citizens as a “dividend” from the record expansion.
“The health of the economy will be the primary concern of the electorate,” said David Cohen, a Singapore-based economist at Action Economics LLC. “Singapore’s economic performance has been pretty strong in the past year and against that backdrop, I think the government should be confident of being re-elected.”
The People’s Action Party, known as PAP and headed by Lee, has led the country since 1959 when the island was still part of the British empire. Singapore joined the Federation of Malaysiain September 1963 before it was expelled and became independent in August 1965.
New Candidates
The last polls, held on May 6, 2006, returned the PAP to power with about 67 percent of the votes cast, down from 75 percent in the 2001 elections. The party has named more than 20 new candidates who will compete in the coming elections to replace parliamentarians who retired or stepped down.Singapore’s parliament is currently made up of 82 PAP lawmakers, two elected opposition politicians, one non-elected opposition member and nine non-elected independents. A law passed last year allowed as many as nine opposition politicians to sit in the legislative body even if the candidates lose.
In these elections, a new law designated the eve of polling day as a so-called cooling-off day, when campaigning is prohibited.
“This 24-hour campaign silence period is to give voters some time to reflect rationally on issues raised during the election before going to the polls,” the Elections Department said on its website.
Casinos, Taxes
Since he took office in August 2004, Lee has lifted a ban on casinos, cut corporate taxes and boosted the financial and legal services industries to reduce the nation’s reliance on exports. Lee is the son of Lee Kuan Yew, the nation’s Minister Mentor and prime minister from 1959 to 1990.Gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 23.5 percent last quarter from the previous three months and the government predicts an expansion of as much as 6 percent this year. The economy added about 116,000 jobs last year when the economy grew a record 14.5 percent, while wages increased an average 5.6 percent in that period.
Singapore’s consumer prices are forecast by the central bank to be at the upper end of the 3 percent to 4 percent range in 2011, prompting the central bank to tighten monetary policy for the third time in a year this month. Policy makers in January introduced more measures to curb property speculation after private home prices and transactions reached records. Attempts to rein in prices had started in 2009.
Immigration had been a key component of Singapore’s population and economic strategy, given the failure of other incentives offered since 1987 to arrest a birth-rate decline -- such as tax breaks, subsidies and cash bonuses.
Hundreds of thousands of people were granted citizenship and permanent residence in the past five years, while companies brought in thousands more to work at hotels, shipyards and restaurants. The population has increased by about 810,000 people since the end of 2005, government figures show.
Disgruntled Singaporeans say the immigration policy means crowded public transportation, more competition with newcomers for jobs, public housing and places in choice schools for their children. The government has said it will slow the intake of immigrants.
Sources: http://www.bloomberg.com
