S'pore's 15th Parliament to open on Sept 5; President's Address to set out Govt's priorities
SINGAPORE – The 15th Parliament will sit for its first session at 5pm on Sept 5, and all newly elected MPs will be sworn in then.
The sitting will start with the election of the Speaker of Parliament and swearing-in of MPs, said Leader of the House Indranee Rajah in a statement on June 13.
Mr Seah Kian Peng, an MP for Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, is the current Speaker.
At the session, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will deliver an opening address to outline the Government's priorities, policies and programmes. This will be followed by a debate on his address from Sept 22 to 26.
The President's Address is important as it will set out strategies and key policies to steer Singapore through the current challenging geopolitical climate and economic uncertainties, said Ms Indranee in a Facebook post on June 13.
This address is delivered by the President on behalf of the Government whenever Parliament reopens.
At the opening of the 14th Parliament after the 2020 General Election, then president Halimah Yacob said Singapore stood at a time of great change, and that the country had to rethink its problems and evolve its social models and policies to suit the new circumstances.
This included taking a fresh look at crucial pillars of society, such as its concept of meritocracy, multiracialism, and the way it conducted its politics, she said then.
In her Facebook post, Ms Indranee noted that while MPs are already on the ground doing constituency work, parliamentary work begins only after its official opening.
The 14th Parliament last sat in early April before dissolving on April 15 ahead of the general election on May 3.
In total, 99 MPs will be sworn in, up from 95 in the 14th Parliament.
Of the 99, 97 were elected at the polls while another two – Mr Andre Low and Ms Eileen Chong from the WP – were elected as Non-Constituency MPs (NCMPs).
The pair were elected as the best-performing losers at the polls as part of the NCMP scheme that provides for opposition representation in Parliament.
Overall, the ruling PAP will have 87 seats, with the rest filled by the WP.
There will be a total of 29 first-time MPs sworn in – 24 from the PAP and five from the WP.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction
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