Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong is set to take charge of the ruling People’s Action Party, consolidating his leadership ahead of a general election due next year.
Outgoing party secretary-general and former premier Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday that he would recommend Wong take the reins once the next central executive committee convenes. Party cadres have already voted for a new CEC, which will later pick a new secretary-general.
“I will lead the PAP into the next general election,” Wong said during the convention. “As your secretary-general, I will renew and strengthen our party.”
The 51-year-old Harvard graduate is seeking a fresh mandate in elections that must be held by November 2025. While the party is certain to extend its grip on power over the financial hub, it has faced some setbacks including a former minister sentenced to jail, and rising living costs that the resurgent opposition has described as a crisis.
The PAP has run the city-state uninterrupted since independence in 1965.
“This will complete the leadership transition from me to my successor,” said Lee, who will remain on the central executive committee in an advisory role. “In May, he took over from me as prime minister, and that transition, I am happy to say, has gone very smoothly.”
Wong, who is also finance minister, has pledged to boost safety nets and re-skilling programs as part of a national strategy to fight income inequality. In his first major policy speech in August, Wong introduced temporary unemployment benefits, a notable departure for a government that has long resisted such programs.
He has pitched budgets over the past three years that are becoming more worker-friendly. This year, the budget included $5 billion for measures including cash payouts and tax breaks, a figure that will reach nearly $40 billion by the end of the decade.
Singapore raised its growth forecast for this year to around 3.5% as the trade-reliant economy recovers faster than anticipated, but the government cautioned on risks for 2025 given an expected barrage of tariffs from a new Trump administration.
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Wong has expressed concerns about the tariffs, saying Singapore needs to reinforce trade links with multiple partners.
“America is still preeminent, but it no longer wants to be the world’s policeman,” Wong said on Sunday of the US election result, adding that Trump’s “mandate reflects the growing sentiment amongst the American public that they are paying too high a price to uphold this global order.”
“Meanwhile, there are other rising powers like China and India but they too are focused on their own domestic issues, and they are not yet in a position to take on larger global responsibilities, and so the world is in flux,” he said.
In the last election in 2020, the PAP won 89% of the parliament seats but it was its worst performance ever due in part over concerns about growing inequality. It prompted the PAP government to later impose a tax on the top 1% earners and raise the minimum salary thresholds for expatriates.
If the PAP cedes a few more seats in parliament to the opposition or there’s a drop in the popular vote in 2025, there could be further policy changes, analysts have said. Wong warned on Sunday that the party can’t be complacent.
“The opposition in Singapore is here to stay,” he said.
