Related: Singapore President dissolves Parliament

    SINGAPORE, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Singapore will hold the next general election on May 6, the government announced Thursday soon after President S. R. Nathan dissolved Parliament on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong earlier on the day.

    Nomination Day will be on April 27 while May 6 is Polling Day, according to a government statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday.

    The statement named the Returning Officer and announced the locations of nine nomination centers across the island, as well as the rules on candidates' application for necessary certificates.

    Each candidate also needs to submit a deposit of 13,500 Singapore dollars (about 8,455 U.S. dollars), the statement said.

    A total of 84 Members of Parliament (MPs) will be elected in the nine Single Member Constituencies (SMCs) and 14 Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) across the country in the election.

    By law, the registered electors resident in a SMC will vote for a single individual to be their MP while those in a GRC will vote for a group of three to six individuals to be their MPs. There are now only five-member and six-member GRCs in the city state.

    Nearly 2.16 million of Singapore's some 4 million population, including more than 1,000 who have registered overseas, are now eligible to vote in the election, which will lead to the formation of the country's 11th Parliament since its independence in 1965.

    The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) led by Lee Hsien Loong, which has introduced 24 new candidates for the upcoming election, unveiled its manifesto and election slogan of "Staying Together, Moving Ahead" last Saturday.

    It will be the first general election for Lee since he became the Prime Minister in August 2004.

    Established in 1954, the PAP won in all the general elections since 1959. It aims to gain 83 parliamentary seats this time.

    The opposition parties, including the Workers' Party, the Singapore Democratic Party, the Singapore Democratic Alliance and the Democratic Progressive Party, have decided to contest up to 57 seats in all the nine SMCs and nine out of the 14 GRCs.

    Singapore's last general election was held in November 2001, in which the PAP got 75 percent of the votes and gained 82 out of the 84 parliamentary seats, while the Workers' Party and the Singapore Democratic Alliance won one seat each. Enditem