Singapore votes for new government amid COVID-19

Singapore votes for new government amid COVID-19

Singapore: Wearing face masks and gloves, Singaporeans were voting on Friday in a general election that is expected to return the ruling party once again to power but the result could be a test for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s handling of the economy during the COVID-19 crisis.

Voting began at 8am and will end at 8pm with the first count expected late at night. Morning slots have been reserved for voters who are 65 years and older to minimise their interaction with younger voters and to allow them to vote ahead of others, the Elections Department (ELD) said on Thursday.

Singaporeans voters are facing “longer than usual queues” at some polling stations. Long lines were seen at several polling centres across Singapore on Friday, the ELD said in an update this morning.

“This is partly due to the additional safety measures put in place to ensure safe voting,” Channel News Asia reported.

A total of 2.65 million people will vote on Friday as voting is compulsory in Singapore and the government has declared Friday a holiday.

Eleven political parties, including the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), campaigned for nine days amid the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19 that has pushed the city-state’s economy towards the worst-ever recession in nearly two decades.

It has been an election season like no other, as candidates and voters alike sought to navigate safety measures and provisions brought about by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Voters heading to the polling stations are “strongly encouraged” to check the queue situation before setting off, the ELD said.

In a bid to enhance the safety of voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of polling stations has been increased from 880 to 1,100, The Straits Times reported.

This means each station will serve an average of 2,400 voters, down from 3,000.

“Family members voting at the same polling station may accompany the senior voter to voter. However, only one accompanying family member will be accorded priority voting, along with the senior voter,” it said.

Prime Minister Lee last month called for general elections 10 months ahead of the schedule to “clear the decks” and give the new government a fresh five-year mandate to focus on the national agenda.

Lee’s People’s Action Party has won every election since the late 1950s. When the party’s share of the vote dipped to about 60 per cent in 2011, which was considered an upset.

The ruling party is expected to win comfortably in the election but the 68-year-old Lee’s handling of the coronavirus crisis could decide the vote share this election. The main opposition Workers’ Party is likely to pose the stiffest challenge.

A total of 192 candidates from 11 parties, including the PAP, will contest parliamentary seats through 17 Group Representation Constituencies which groups together candidates in four or five, and 14 Single Member Constituencies.

While the PAP has not fielded any Indian-origin candidate in this election, the opposition parties have fielded about a dozen of them.

The ruling PAP is the only party with candidates contesting on all 93 seats. This is the second general election that the opposition has fielded candidates in all seats in Parliament.

In the last elections in September 2015, the PAP contested all 89 seats and won 83 seats, an absolute majority in the house. The Workers’ Party secured six seats. Observers are watching if the Workers’ Party can increase their seats this time in Parliament.

Prime Minister Lee’s estranged brother Lee Hsien Yang recently joined the Progress Singapore Party, bolstering the opposition camp. However, he is not fighting the elections. The two brothers are involved in a legal tussle of their family house-property.

Overall, the opposition calls have been to limit the PAP’s expected win to less than two-third of the seats in Parliament, calling it blank cheque or no absolute majority.

Lee, who is the country’s third prime minister, has led the government since 2004. His father Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore’s first prime minister and he transformed the city-state into an affluent nation during his 31 years rule.

Most of the issues raised during the campaign were about jobs and future employment with the increasing presence of foreigners both professionals and labour class, gap in wages of workers and executives, the withdrawal of Central Provident Fund on retirement at the age of 55 and spending of national reserves.

Singapore elections: Ruling PAP faces competition in all 93 seats

Singapore elections: Ruling PAP faces competition in all 93 seats

Singapore: Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party is facing competition in all the 93 parliamentary seats going to polls in the July 10 general elections.

The nomination day on Tuesday saw a total of 192 candidates from 11 parties file papers to contest every seat in 17 group representation constituencies (GRCs) and 14 single-member constituencies (SMCs).

There are 2.65 million eligible voters in Singapore. Voting is compulsory in the country.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong-led PAP is the only party with candidates contesting for every seat.

The prime minister’s estranged brother Lee Hsien Yang, who had recently joined the opposition Progress Singapore Party (PSP), announced on Tuesday that he will not compete for the polls.

Both the brothers are embroiled in a bitter dispute over family property.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lee told reporters that the PAP will fight for every vote.

“Every constituency is contested, so this is not a by-election. It’s a general election for the most important issues concerning the country at the moment of crisis,” The Straits Times quoted Lee as saying.

“And I think everybody needs to understand that, everybody must have that in mind when they assess the votes,” he said at the nomination centre at Deyi Secondary School.

The July 10 election will see Lee lead the PAP into battle for the fourth time as prime minister. In the last general election held in 2015, the PAP formed the government with 83 seats, an absolute majority.

The 2006 general election, the first led by Lee, saw the PAP get 66.6 per cent of the popular vote. The ruling party saw its vote share fall to 60.1 per cent in the 2011 election, but rebounded to secure 69.9 per cent of the vote in 2015.

COVID-19: Singapore warns of worst economic contraction since independence

COVID-19: Singapore warns of worst economic contraction since independence

Singapore: Singapore’s virus-hit economy could shrink by as much as seven percent this year the worst reading since independence the government said Tuesday, as it unveiled a fresh multi-million dollar stimulus package.

The city-state is seen as a bellwether of the global economy, and the forecast historic contraction highlights the extreme pain being wrought on countries by the killer disease.

The warning came as Singapore’s deputy prime minister unveiled a fresh support package worth Sg$33 billion ($23.2 billion) for the troubled city, which has been crippled by months of lockdowns around the world.

The trade ministry’s forecast which was a downgrade from the maximum four percent contraction predicted in March came as official data showed the economy shrank 0.7 percent on-year in the first three months of the year, while it reduced 4.7 percent from the previous quarter.

The financial hub is one of the world’s most open economies and is usually hit hardest and earliest during any global shock.

The ministry said the new estimate was made “in view of the deterioration in the external demand outlook” and the partial lockdown imposed domestically. A contraction of seven percent would be the worst since the city’s independence in 1965.

Shutdowns in major markets such as the United States, Europe and China have crippled demand for exports, and a halt in international air travel has hammered Singapore’s key tourism sector.

Singapore has ordered the closure of most businesses, advised people to stay at home, and banned large gatherings. While officials say they may start relaxing the rules from early June, many restrictions will remain in place.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who is also the finance minister, announced in parliament the new package largely aimed at helping companies save jobs.

The government has so far earmarked more than Sg$90 billion, or 20 percent of GDP, to cushion the economic fallout from the virus, which has infected over 32,000 people in the city-state, the highest in Southeast Asia.

“It has been an unprecedented crisis that is still changing rapidly,” Heng said, adding Singapore has the “fiscal resources to mount this response”.

Song Seng Wun, an economist with CIMB Private Banking, said he expects the second quarter to bear the full brunt of the fallout, with GDP expected to contract 15-20 percent.

“Singapore is a small and open economy whose trade is three times the size of GDP. The sharp contractions are a reflection of its external vulnerability,” he told AFP.

The trade ministry also said “significant uncertainties” remain despite the opening up of some economies as they slowly emerge from lockdowns.

“First, there is a risk that subsequent waves of infections in major economies such as the US and eurozone may further disrupt economic activity,” it said.

“Second, a growing perception of diminished fiscal and monetary policy space in many major economies could damage confidence in authorities’ ability to respond to shocks.”

The trade ministry warned that “notwithstanding the downgrade, there continues to be a significant degree of uncertainty over the length and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the trajectory of the economic recovery”.

Singapore’s central bank in March eased monetary policy to support the virus-hit economy.

Oil prices at 17-year lows as virus ravages world

Oil prices at 17-year lows as virus ravages world

Singapore: Oil prices extended losses in Asian trade Monday, March 30 and languished at 17-year lows, with the coronavirus crisis escalating around the world and no end in sight to a vicious price war.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 5.3 percent to trade at $20 a barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude was off 6.5 percent at $23.

The falls came after the death toll from the pandemic surged past 30,000 at the weekend as cases in hard-hit Europe and the United States showed no sign of letting up. Senior US scientist Anthony Fauci estimated the virus could possibly result in 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the United States, while President Donald Trump extended “social distancing” guidelines until April 30.

The president also said that he expected the country to be well on our way to recovery by June 1 dropping his previous target of mid-April.

The virus has infected more than 140,000 in the world’s top economy and left more than 2,400 dead.

Oil markets have been plunging for weeks as lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by governments worldwide to fight the virus strangle demand.

Even as demand falls, supply has increased dramatically after top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia engage in a price war following a row about whether to cut output to support prices.

At the end of last week, Riyadh said it had not been in touch with Moscow about potential output cuts while Russia’s deputy energy minister said oil at $25 a barrel was not a catastrophe for the country’s producers signaling the two sides are still far apart.

“Demand concerns are critical but well known, what really took the market down were the signals we got from Saudi Arabia and Russia that they intend to continue their current path,” Vivek Dhar, a commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, told Bloomberg News.

“Market hopes of a deal have come undone.” There are fears the commodity could fall further as storage tanks around the globe approach full capacity.

“When the storage capacity is filled, we should probably expect a response from Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other essential oil producers,” AxiCorp’s Stephen Innes said, though he warned “the longer their response takes, the higher the risk of another steep decline in oil prices”.

The retreat on oil markets comes after a bounce with equities last week that came after policymakers worldwide unleashed massive stimulus measures to prop up the virus-hit global economy.