In the end, it was not even close. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore uninterrupted since 1959, improved its vote share by more than 4 percentage points to 65.57 percent, securing victory in a landslide. The PAP maintained its near-total dominance in Parliament, winning 87 of 97 seats, including five of them uncontested. In several constituencies, it secured more than three-quarters of votes polled. Voting is mandatory in Singapore, and the turnout exceeded 90 percent, so its dominance was total.

In the days leading up to the May 3 elections—and Singapore offers one of the shortest windows for campaigning, only nine days—political rallies organized by opposition parties were packed, and enthusiasm for their candidates seemed real. The PAP’s own rallies were poorly attended, even when free food was offered. Social media posts ridiculed PAP leaders for being out of touch with reality, highlighting past insensitive remarks: In 2015, for example, Tan Chuan-Jin, then the minister for family development, said poor older people who collected cardboard boxes to supplement their income were doing so “as a form of exercise.” (Tan resigned from the PAP in 2023 amid personal scandal.) Such comments have reinforced the widely held perception that Singapore’s well-paid politicians are too aloof from how regular people live and inconsiderate about the rising cost of living. Singapore now has more millionaires than does London while median wealth has fallen slightly. The lack of a social safety net also worries public-minded Singaporeans, and a book on the country’s growing inequality was a national best-seller.

In the end, it was not even close. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore uninterrupted since 1959, improved its vote share by more than 4 percentage points to 65.57 percent, securing victory in a landslide. The PAP maintained its near-total dominance in Parliament, winning 87 of 97 seats, including five of them uncontested. In several constituencies, it secured more than three-quarters of votes polled. Voting is mandatory in Singapore, and the turnout exceeded 90 percent, so its dominance was total.

In the days leading up to the May 3 elections—and Singapore offers one of the shortest windows for campaigning, only nine days—political rallies organized by opposition parties were packed, and enthusiasm for their candidates seemed real. The PAP’s own rallies were poorly attended, even when free food was offered. Social media posts ridiculed PAP leaders for being out of touch with reality, highlighting past insensitive remarks: In 2015, for example, Tan Chuan-Jin, then the minister for family development, said poor older people who collected cardboard boxes to supplement their income were doing so “as a form of exercise.” (Tan resigned from the PAP in 2023 amid personal scandal.) Such comments have reinforced the widely held perception that Singapore’s well-paid politicians are too aloof from how regular people live and inconsiderate about the rising cost of living. Singapore now has more millionaires than does London while median wealth has fallen slightly. The lack of a social safety net also worries public-minded Singaporeans, and a book on the country’s growing inequality was a national best-seller.

To be fair, the government is aware and in recent years has boosted social spending, given financial respite to those who lost jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and

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