Singapore's voters gave the ruling party a "major wake-up call" in weekend elections, with critics feeling more and more empowered and no longer afraid to speak up for change, analysts said Sunday.
The vote was essentially a spill over of the voter discontent seen in May, when the opposition made a historic breakthrough in legislative elections and prompted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to reshuffle his cabinet, they said.
"It's an indication that support for the PAP is not so strong," said Reuben Wong, an assistant political science professor at the National University of Singapore, after results showed Tan secured just over 35 percent of the vote.
"They have to figure out whether they need to reorient themselves away from the old-school authoritarian conservative PAP towards something that's more mainstream Singapore, more liberal, more plural, more open to different ideas." Full story
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