Singaporean chief says he’ll hand the reins to deputy Lawrence Wong as quickly as November 2024.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has introduced he’ll hand over the management of the ruling Individuals’s Motion Occasion (PAP) earlier than the 2025 common elections.
Lee, 71, mentioned on Sunday that he would hand the reins to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as quickly because the PAP’s seventieth anniversary in November 2024.
Addressing PAP members on Sunday, Lee mentioned Wong had proved himself as head of the federal government’s COVID-19 process drive throughout the pandemic and “there is no such thing as a motive to delay the political transition”.
“Due to this fact, I intend handy over to DPM Lawrence earlier than the subsequent common election,” Lee mentioned.
“After that, I shall be on the new PM’s disposal. I’ll go wherever he thinks I might be helpful. I’ll do my greatest to assist him and his workforce to struggle and win the subsequent GE.”
Wong, a former minister for finance and nationwide growth, gained prominence overseeing Singapore’s COVID response, which achieved one of many world’s lowest charges of sickness and loss of life throughout the early days of the pandemic.
Wong’s management of the PAP would all however guarantee he turns into the fourth chief of Singapore, the place strict controls on political activism and in depth gerrymandering have helped the celebration safe greater than 60 years of interrupted rule.
Within the 2020 election, the PAP gained 83 of 93 seats in parliament even because the opposition had its most profitable efficiency within the nation’s historical past.
Wong could be Singapore’s second chief to not come from the Lee household after Goh Chok Tong, who ruled between 1990 and 2004.
Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong’s father, was the city-state’s founding father and first prime minister.
Singapore was rocked by uncommon political upheaval earlier this 12 months when three governing celebration members resigned over corruption allegations and an extramarital affair.