As PAP triumphs again in Singapore, Workers' Party emerges as main opposition

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said the convincing re-election of his People's Action Party would help the city-state face turbulent times, as analysts said the weekend poll also showed one party emerging as the main opposition group.

The PAP's 14th successive election victory was never in question. Instead, the focus was on the mandate voters would give Wong in his first electoral test since assuming the top job a year ago. 

The PAP, which has ruled since before Singapore's 1965 independence, won 87 of the 97 parliamentary seats up for grabs in Saturday's vote, the election commission said. Wong said the PAP won 65% of the vote, improving on the 61% achieved in the 2020 contest.  

"The results will put Singapore in a better position to face this turbulent world," Wong said in the early hours of Sunday.

Unspoken was the cause of that turbulence, with U.S. President Donald Trump's upending of the global order and tariff regime posing a threat to Singapore, a small, open and trade-driven nation.

Australia's Labor Party won an increased majority in an election on Saturday and last week Canada's Liberal Party retained power with the Trump factor also cited as a key factor.

"Hence, this suggests that there is indeed a strong element of a flight to safety among voters," said Gillian Koh, Senior Research Fellow in governance and economy at the Institute of Policy Studies, although she added there were also local factors at play.

The 10 seats that the PAP did not win on Saturday were all won by the Workers' Party.

"It was a very difficult fight for the Workers' Party, as you know, any opposition party in Singapore, to make inroads into our political system, the challenges are real," party leader Pritam Singh told reporters on Sunday.

Analysts said the Workers' Party had solidified its position as the main challenger to the PAP's stranglehold on power.

"It is a hard, thankless slog, but they are attracting really high-quality candidates, running a tight outfit, and using these elections to give new people valuable electioneering experience," said Associate Professor Michael Barr of the College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University.

Koh also noted the Workers' Party had pulled ahead of other parties, though a sustained challenge to the PAP remained distant.

"It takes Singapore firmly into a one-and-a-half party system, albeit not immediately and well less than its medium-term goal of denying the PAP the supermajority in parliament."

(Reporting by Rae Wee, Xinghui Kok, Jun Yuan Yong and Bing Hong Lok; Writing by John Mair; Editing by Saad Sayeed)