Singapore: Singapore Prime Minister Mr. Lee Hsien Loong has announced that he will step down from the leadership of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) before the 2025 general elections.
The 71-year-old Mr. Lee said that he would hand the reins to Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Lawrence Wong. This may occur as soon as the PAP’s 70th anniversary, which will be in November 2024.
Addressing PAP members, Mr. Lee remarked that Mr. Wong had proved himself as head of the government’s COVID-19 task force during the pandemic and “there is no reason to delay the political transition.”
“Therefore, I intend to hand over to DPM Lawrence before the next general election,” Mr. Lee stated.
“After that, I will be at the new PM’s disposal. I will go wherever he thinks I can be useful. I will do my best to help him and his team fight and win the next GE,” the PM added.
Mr. Wong, a former minister for finance and national development, became popular by overseeing Singapore’s COVID response, which achieved one of the world’s lowest rates of illness and death during the early days of the pandemic.
Mr. Lee came to power for the fifth term in the 2020 election, in which the PAP won 83 of 93 seats in parliament. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong’s father, was the city-state’s founding father and first prime minister.
Mr. Wong would be Singapore’s second leader not to come from the Lee family after Mr. Goh Chok Tong, who governed between 1990 and 2004.
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