Special Report: Singapore's general elections

    SINGAPORE, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Having more contests in the general election is good for the maturation of Singapore's political system, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Thursday at a press conference.

    He stressed that, in the coming election, Singaporeans are not just voting for Members of Parliament (MPs) in their respective constituencies, but also voting for a government which they think can bring the country forward in the next 15 to 20 years.

    Being the secretary general of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), Lee said that the PAP's policies are future-oriented, which will provide Singaporeans, no matter young or old, with more opportunities.

    The PAP has secured 37 of the 84 parliamentary seats in seven uncontested Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) on Nomination Day on Thursday.

    The opposition parties, including the Workers' Party (WP), the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) and the Singapore Democratic Party, have fielded 47 candidates in all the nine Single Member Constituencies and the other seven of the 14 GRCs to challenge the PAP.

    It is for the first time since 1988 that the PAP did not won a majority of the total seats to declare victory in the general election on Nomination Day.

    However, Lee said that this result is not important for the party because he and his team are confident that the PAP will win the election on Polling Day, which is May 6.

    He vowed that the PAP team will take the contests seriously and do as best as they can to win each and every vote.

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

    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 coming election. Enditem