1988 Singaporean General Election

General elections were held in Singapore on 3 September 1988. President Wee Kim Wee dissolved parliament on 17 August 1988 on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party, which won 80 of the 81 seats. This is Lee Kuan Yew's last election as Prime Minister before handing to Deputy Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Though the total eligible voter population surpassed one million in 1976, the 1988 elections was the first time that over one million voters were able to vote in contested constituencies. This was not repeated until 2006.

As of 2025, the 1988 election was the recent election to date where Workers' Party did not win any seats in Parliament (not counting the Non-constituency Member of Parliament).

Background

In 1986, Town Councils were introduced, which also cumulates to the creation of Group Representation Constituencies, a plurality general ticket voting scheme, to ensure ethnic minority representation in Parliament, starting with three member constituencies. This was also the first election where changes to electoral boundaries were approved by the Prime Minister's Office instead of tabling a bill
in Parliament to approve changes.

The Workers' Party absorbed the two parties, Barisan Sosialis (BS) and Singapore United Front to become the largest opposition party and also allied with the Malay party PKMS as a single faction. On 6 March 1987, the National Solidarity Party was founded by former PAP member Kum Teng Hock and former SDP chairman Soon Kia Seng, the party's founding President and Secretary-General, respectively. Midway into the term on 10 December 1986, WP secretary-general J. B. Jeyaretnam lost his Anson SMC seat and was banned from standing in elections for a five year period for falsified declarations of party accounts, with one count meeting the required threshold (of at least $2,000 or a year's imprisonment) for the disqualification to take effect.

In November 1990, two years after the election, the Nominated MP scheme was implemented to introduce non-partisan voices into the legislature. Although the law allowed up to six NMPs, two were appointed at the start and served for a year before the Parliament term ended.

Timeline

Electoral boundaries

In addition to the creation of the Group Representation Constituency (GRC) scheme, single member constituencies (SMC) were either formed from or absorbed to neighboring constituencies due to development and electorate, which was shown in the table below:

New/outgoing candidates

The election introduced certain prominent members such as George Yeo, K Shanmugam, Mah Bow Tan, as well as a future WP and opposition leader Low Thia Khiang, who made his debut in Tiong Bahru Group Representation Constituency. 13 MPs retired ahead of the election per the party's renewal, which include Deputy Prime Minister Toh Chin Chye and Senior Minister S. Rajaratnam. Before that, two other MPs had vacated but neither by-elections are called, which were J. B. Jeyaretnam (Anson) and Minister Teh Cheang Wan (Geylang West).

Results

For the first time since independence, there was a drop in voter turnout, with 94.70% of the 70 contested constituencies cast their vote, 0.95% lower than the previous election. For the second consecutive election, PAP had seen a drop of their popular vote, down by 1.66% to 63.17%. For the fifth time in six elections, Tanjong Pagar was the best-performing constituency this election with 81.60%, being the only one to score at least 80% for the election.

With the Singapore Democratic Party leader's Chiam See Tong sole victory in the seat of Potong Pasir, two Non-Constituency MP seats were offered to former solicitor-general and Law Society president, Francis Seow and veteran politician Dr Lee Siew Choh, both of which were standing under the WP ticket in Eunos Group Representation Constituency; their campaign was notable for criticizing PAP for alleged dubious financial circumstances; in response Minister of State Tay Eng Soon went to lead their PAP team for Eunos. Ultimately, PAP won Eunos at a 50.89% vote, the election's narrowest margin of 1.78%, therefore the WP were eligible for the NCMP for being the "best losers"; however, Seow fled the country on 17 December to avoid arrest and was disqualified from the post while Lee took up the offer and became Singapore's inaugural NCMP, marking Lee's return to Parliament after 25 years since his last stint as a PAP and BS legislator.

Opposition party's overall popular vote had set several records this election, with the WP's having the best score attained by any opposition party in post-independence to date with 16.72%; Angkatan Islam's contested vote share of 1.50% sets a record-worst performing party in post-independence Singapore until it was later surpassed in 2025 by the National Solidarity Party with 1.19% of the contested votes; the overall popular vote of 0.02% however, remained its worst score in any election's history. Five candidates had forfeited their $4,000 election deposits.

By constituency

Notes

References

{{Singaporean elections

Singapore
General elections in Singapore
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