Ruling party wins Singapore general election

Singapore’s long-ruling People’s Action Party today won the general election with 75.29% of the vote.

Despite the huge majority, the PAP was denied its hoped-for clean sweep of the general election in the tightly controlled city-state, with two opposition stalwarts holding on to their seats in Parliament.

Singapore Democratic Alliance chief Chiam See Tong won a fifth consecutive term in the legislature, where he is the longest-serving lawmaker in the tiny, struggling opposition.

The PAP hoped to win at least 65% of the vote, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said before the election.

Opposition Workers’ Party leader Low Thia Khiang was also declared a winner for his third term in a row.

Before the election, Chiam and Low held the only opposition seats in Singapore’s 93-seat Parliament.

The PAP will have to assign one more seat to an opposition candidate, who will have limited voting rights in the legislature, under a law designed to curb a monopoly in the parliament.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong had asked Singapore to give his party a mandate to introduce a dramatic, recession-battling economic restructuring program, which could include painful measures such as wage cuts.

Singapore is currently in its worst recession since its independence from Malaysia in 1965.

The PAP received 65% of the popular vote in the country’s last election in 1997, up from 61% in the previous polls in 1991.

Before that, the PAP’s percentage had gradually dropped from an all-time high of 84.43% in 1968.

Earlier today, Singapore police said they arrested 16 people suspected of taking part in a riot after a political rally on the eve of the election.

Such incidents are extremely rare in the tightly controlled country, where public speech, assembly and demonstrations are under strict government regulations.

The arrests occurred after about 200 people gathered at a roadside late yesterday and waved flags in support of the opposition Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), police said in a statement.

The crowd held up traffic and tapped on windows of passing cars, the statement said.

‘‘Uniformed police officers were jeered as they tried to keep the crowd off the road,’’ the statement added.

After one officer was punched, police withdrew from the scene to work out who the ringleaders were, the statement said.

The road was blocked off and riot control troops were sent in to break up the crowd, which ignored pleas from SDA leader Chiam See Tong to go home, police said.

One woman and 15 men were arrested in the SDA fracas, the police statement said.

Rioting is punishable in Singapore by up to five years in jail and caning. Unlawful assembly carries a jail term of up to six months, a fine, or both.