Analysing Singapore's 2025 general elections

Singapore’s recently concluded general elections have handed a decisive victory to the People’s Action Party (PAP), extending the party’s unbroken rule in the city-state to a staggering sixth decade since Independence. But even if the elections have bolstered the status quo, Singapore’s 14th General Elections (GE2025) seem to indicate intriguing political trends in the city-state: from a new slate of faces marking generational shifts in the incumbent and the opposition, and the salience of geopolitical issues in domestic politics (Trump, tariffs, Palestine), to the tentative accommodation of a ‘rational opposition’ in political discourse, and the striking role of podcasts and social media in carving out a small public sphere outside direct state control.

Are these trends here to stay? What changes do these suggest for Singapore’s political landscape? More broadly, how might we situate GE2025 in the wider arc of Singapore’s electoral history? And in what ways does Singapore’s political development – via the prism of GE2025 – speak to political science discussions on durable party dominance, competitive authoritarianism, opposition coalitions, and valence politics? This roundtable brings together four political scientists who will shed light on the key issues that dominated these elections and situate the proximate dramas of the elections in larger analytic, historical, and comparative frames.

About the speakers

Elvin Ong is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His primary research interest is in democratisation in East and Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on the role of opposition parties. His research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, Party Politics, Democratization, Journal of East Asian Studies, Asian Survey etc. He is the author of Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies (Michigan, 2022) which explains why opposition parties may or may not build opposition coalitions to contest against dominant ruling parties in the Philippines, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Teo Kay Key is Research Fellow at IPS Social Lab at the Institute of Policy Studies. Her research interests are in political and social attitudes, public opinion, voting behaviour, and Singapore society. She has a PhD in Political Science from the National University of Singapore, and a Masters in Political Behaviour from the University of Essex, United Kingdom.

Chong Ja Ian is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. His research covers security in Southeast and Northeast Asia, with a focus on external intervention in domestic politics, coercive diplomacy, regional cooperation, democratisation, and contentious politics. He is the author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation (Cambridge, 2012). He has been a close observer of Singapore politics.

Walid Jumblatt Abdullah is Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Walid works on state-Islam relations, and political parties and elections, with particular focus on Singapore and Malaysia. He has published works on race and inequality in Singapore. He’s the creator and host of the popular podcast Teh Tarik With Walid and author of Why Palestine? Reflections from Singapore (Ethos Books, 2025).

Image credit - People's Action Party (PAP) flags from Adobe Stock; Workers' Party rally by Ja Ian Chong.

The ANU Southeast Asia Institute Research Seminar Series is a recurring seminar series that showcases the work of scholars working on political, social, and cultural issues in Southeast Asia.

Contact the ANU Southeast Asia Institute Research Seminar Series Conveners:

Deepak Nair at deepak.nair@anu.edu.au
Nicholas Chan at waiyeap.chan@anu.edu.au