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This is a list of political parties in Singapore, including existing and historical ones. The earliest political parties were either branches of parent parties in Malaya, or were established in the lead-up to Singapore first Legislative Council elections in 1948. Amongst the oldest parties, the Malay Union, traced its history back to 14 May 1926, but it was initially a non-political association, participating in elections only in 1955. The Progressive Party and Labour Party, both established in the late 1940s, were some of the pioneering local establishments, with the PP the only party to contest in the first elections in 1948, and the LP coming on board in 1951. By 1955, the fledging British colony had seven parties contesting, and reached a pinnacle of 13 parties in 1959. A total of three parties were established in the 1940s, 12 in the 1950s and five in the 1960s.
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In post-independence Singapore, the dominance of the People's Action Party, which first came into power in 1959, somewhat cooled the flurry of political activism. On 16 May 1960, a new Societies Ordinance was passed, and in December 1966, local parties were forbidden from being affiliated to foreign ones. This directly impacting the handful of small Malaysia-linked parties, most of which renamed themselves and/or cut formal foreign ties. The PAP's dominance and Singapore's economic advancement further weakened the smaller opposition parties, and as of today, ten parties have officially dissolved, mostly through mergers with other parities.
Still, new parties continued to be established. Seven new parties were formed in the 1970s (including the Justice Party, Singapore and the United Front, the preprocessor of today's Democratic Progressive Party), two in the 1980s (the Singapore Democratic Party and the National Solidarity Party (NSP)), two in the 1990s (the Singapore National Front and the Singapore People's Party (SPP)), three in the 2000s, and as of now, two in the 2010s. The newest party, the Socialist Front was established on 1 September 2010. There are therefore a total of 28 registered political parties today, of which eight have never contested in an election.
Over the years, alliances between political parties existed, but most did not last long. There are at present only one functioning multi-party alliance, the Singapore Democratic Alliance, which was formed on 3 July 2001, initially composed of the SPP, NSP, Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura and the Justice Party, Singapore, with the SPP the lead party. The vision was to bring all opposition parties under one banner to counter the PAP's dominance, but it was met with limited success. The NSP left the alliance in 2007, and in 2010, the SPP itself left when there was internal disagreements over the SPP's attempts to bring in the newly formed Reform Party.
Legislation
Under the current legislation, all political parties (termed "Political Associations") must be registered under the Societies Act. As such, the following rules pertaining to political associations apply:
The government has the power to dissolve the party if it contravenes the above rules, or any other rule applicable to all forms of registered societies.
Under the Political Donations Act which came into force on 15 February 2001, Political Associations are also barred from accepting any donation in cash or kind from impermissible donors, or from anonymous donors where the value exceeds S$5,000. The government announced that it was to "prevent foreigners from interfering in domestic politics through the financial support for any association's cause", and cited an example of a case in 1959 when S$700,000 was sent to Chew Swee Kee, then Education Minister from the Singapore People's Alliance by a "neighbouring intelligence service in a "black operation" against the interests of Singapore". Another case was also cited pertaining to foreign financial support for Francis Seow of the Workers' Party in 1988. Critics noted that the Singapore government itself was responsible for giving $20,00 to Australian political parties through (Singtel-owned) Optus, although the motives and details of the donation remain unverified.
Other defunct parties
Shirt colours
The candidates and supporters of the various political parties tend to wear the following shirt colours while making their rounds in various wards or campaigning.