Electoral system for national legislature

Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Act 1988 (No. 9 of 1988)

New Article 39A
Group Representative Constituencies

39A.—

39A.1 The Legislature may, in order to ensure the representation in Parliament of Members from the Malay, Indian and other minority communities, by law make provision for — (a) any constituency to be declared by the President, having regard to the number of electors in that constituency, as a group representation constituency to enable any election in that constituency to be held on a basis of a group of 3 candidates; and (b) the qualifications, in addition to those in Article 44, of persons who may be eligible for any election in group representation constituencies, including the requirements referred to in clause (2).

39A.2 Any law made pursuant to clause (1) shall provide for — (a) the President to designate every group representation constituency — (i) as a constituency where at least one of the 3 candidates in every group shall be a person belonging to the Malay community; or (ii) as a constituency where at least one of the 3 candidates in every group shall be a person belonging to the Indian or other minority communities;

Singapore Elections Department

 The Parliament

Elected MPs form the bulk and are elected at an election on a one-man-one-vote system based on simple majority. Elected MPs could be returned from the SMCs and GRCs. Each SMC returns one MP while each GRC can have three to six MPs, one of whom must be from the Malay Community or the Indian or Other Minority Communities. This is to ensure that the minority groups are represented in Parliament. Currently, we have 13 SMCs and 16 GRCs making a total of 29 constituencies and 89 MPs.

This was the first election in Singapore history to use the hybrid combination of first past the post and party block vote system. Called the ‘Group Representative Constituency’ system (GRC), voters select among closed and blocked team lists, and the winning list retains all seats. It was enacted to ensure the representation of Malay, Indian and other minority communities in Parliament where one GRC must field at least one minority candidate