Ruling party wins landslide in Singapore

SINGAPORE --Singapore's ruling party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections Saturday, signaling continuity in the city-state's trademark mix of economic success, social stability and tight political controls.

Final results showed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's People's Action Party winning 82 of 84 seats in Parliament, including 37 seats it captured automatically before the election because the opposition did not contest them.

The breakdown of seats -- with two for the opposition -- is unchanged from the outgoing Parliament. The result was widely expected, but the percentage of votes won by the ruling party dropped to 66.6 percent from 75.3 percent in the last election in 2001, indicating that more Singaporeans want new voices in government.

The ruling party has won every general election since Singapore became independent in 1965, bolstered by its transformation of the resource-scarce former British colony into one of Asia's richest, most stable societies.

The state's sharp limits on speech and assembly have undercut the struggling opposition, and ruling party leaders have sidelined some opponents with defamation suits that have rendered them bankrupt, making them ineligible for office.

The vote was the first electoral test of the 54-year-old Lee's popularity since the son of national founder and former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew became prime minister in 2004.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Lee Hsien Loong told cheering supporters at a stadium.

Ruling party leaders had dismissed suggestions that politics in Singapore amounted to one-party rule, saying they would welcome a vigorous contest with a credible opposition. They called many of the current opposition figures inexperienced or incompetent.

Early Sunday, Lee acknowledged that the Workers' Party had produced "better-quality candidates" in this election.

The prime minister, who said some Singaporeans may have voted for the opposition because of rising costs, had campaigned on a pledge not to leave behind the poor, the elderly and the unemployed.

Opposition leaders said they had put up a good fight, and were not surprised by the ruling party victory.

"We are not thinking that we are going to overthrow the government overnight," said Glenda Han, a candidate from the opposition Workers' Party. "People are sitting up and looking at the opposition in a more positive light."

Many Singaporeans view the ruling party as the safest choice, and its candidates have said constituencies that vote for them will get priority in government funds for housing upgrades and other benefits.

Some people, especially among the younger generation, say they want more public debate and a loosening of controls.

Opposition candidates highlighted a growing income disparity between the rich and poor in the city-state of 4.3 million, where some people struggle financially despite the country's status as a high-tech, manufacturing hub.

Lee has acknowledged his party was unlikely to match the 75 percent mandate it secured in 2001 when an economic recession and the threat of terrorist attacks saw the electorate rally behind his predecessor.

The PAP's lowest-ever margin of victory was 61 percent in 1991.