List of presidents of Singapore
- Top left: S. R. Nathan was the was the longest serving head of state of Singapore.
- Top right: Halimah Yacob was the first female president of Singapore.
- Bottom left: Ong Teng Cheong was the first president to be elected by popular vote
- Bottom right: Tharman Shanmugaratnam is the incumbent president of Singapore.
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The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Republic of Singapore. Preceded by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara, the office of president was created on 22 December 1965 after Singapore's independence in August 1965, with incumbent Yang di-Pertuan Negara Yusof Ishak serving as the first president.[1][2] Under the Constitution, presidents must be a Singaporean citizen,[3] non-partisan,[4] and elected by a popular vote.[5]
Originally elected by Parliament, a 1991 constitutional amendment was made to allow for the president to be directly elected by a popular vote, with the 1993 presidential election between Ong Teng Cheong and Chua Kim Yeow being the first time a president was directly elected by popular vote.[6][5] Singapore follows a non-executive model of the Westminster parliamentary system where the president serves as the head of state, separate to the head of government which is instead served by the Cabinet, led by the prime minister.[7] In 2016, a second constitutional amendment was made that allowed for a presidential election to be reserved for an ethnic community in Singapore if no one from that community had been president for the previous five presidential terms.[8]
The role of the president was originally ceremonial and symbolic, carrying residual powers, however the role was later given executive powers such as the reserve power to veto certain bills, most notably in relation to Singapore's reserves as a check and balance process as well as revoking and appointing public service appointments among other powers listed in the Constitution.[9][10]
List of presidents
[edit]| No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) |
Prior office | Term of office | Election | Results | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||||
| 1 | Yusof Ishak (1910–1970) |
Yang di-Pertuan Negara | 9 August 1965 |
23 November 1970 |
5 years, 106 days | – | Elected by Parliament | [2] | |
| 1967 | |||||||||
| Speaker of Parliament Yeoh Ghim Seng as Acting President 23 November 1970–2 January 1971 |
[11] | ||||||||
| 2 | Benjamin Sheares (1907–1981) |
Physician, academic | 2 January 1971 |
12 May 1981 |
10 years, 130 days | 1970 | Elected by Parliament | [11] | |
| 1974 | |||||||||
| 1978 | |||||||||
| Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin as Acting President 12 May 1981–14 May 1981 |
[12][13] | ||||||||
| Speaker of Parliament Yeoh Ghim Seng as Acting President 14 May 1981–23 October 1981 | |||||||||
| 3 | Devan Nair (1923–2005) |
Member of Parliament | 23 October 1981 |
28 March 1985 |
3 years, 156 days | 1981 | Elected by Parliament | [14] | |
| Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin as Acting President 28 March 1985–31 March 1985 |
[15] | ||||||||
| Speaker of Parliament Yeoh Ghim Seng as Acting President 31 March 1985–2 September 1985 | |||||||||
| 4 | Wee Kim Wee (1915–2005) |
Ambassador-at-Large | 2 September 1985 |
1 September 1993 |
7 years, 364 days | 1985 | Elected by Parliament | [16] | |
| 1989 | |||||||||
| 5 | 
|
Ong Teng Cheong (1936–2002) |
Deputy Prime Minister | 1 September 1993 |
1 September 1999 |
6 years | 1993 | 952,513 (58.69%) |
[17] |
| 6 | 
|
Sellapan Ramanathan (1924–2016) |
Ambassador-at-Large | 1 September 1999 |
1 September 2011 |
12 years | 1999 | Uncontested | [18] |
| 2005 | |||||||||
| 7 | 
|
Tony Tan Keng Yam (born 1940) |
Deputy Prime Minister | 1 September 2011 |
1 September 2017 |
6 years | 2011 | 745,693 (35.20%) |
[19] |
| Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers J. Y. Pillay as Acting President 1 September 2017–14 September 2017 |
[20] | ||||||||
| 8 | .jpg)
|
Halimah Yacob (born 1954) |
Speaker of Parliament | 14 September 2017 |
14 September 2023 |
6 years | 2017 | Uncontested | [21] |
| 9 | 
|
Tharman Shanmugaratnam(born 1957) | Senior Minister | 14 September 2023 |
Incumbent (14 September 2029) |
1 year, 13 days | 2023 | 1,749,261 (70.41%) |
[22] |
Timeline
[edit]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ "REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE INDEPENDENCE ACT 1965". Singapore Statutes Online. 9 August 1965. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Yusof to be the first President". The Straits Times. 15 December 1965. p. 13. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ Constitution, Art. 19(2)(a)
- ^ Constitution, Art. 19(2)(f)
- ^ a b Constitution, Art. 17A
- ^ Cua, Genevieve (30 November 1991). "Powers of elected president come into effect today". The Business Times. p. 1. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ "Explanatory Material on the Role of the President under the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore" (PDF). Elections Department Singapore. p. 3. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
- ^ Constitution, Art. 19B
- ^ Constitution, Art. 37IE
- ^ Shafeeq, Syarafana (24 August 2023). "What the president can and cannot do: ELD explains". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
- ^ a b Chia, Poteik (27 December 1970). "SHEARES TO BE PRESIDENT". The Straits Times. p. 1. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ "ACTING PRESIDENT". The Business Times. 12 May 1981. p. 1. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ "Sheares in a coma". The Straits Times. 11 May 1981. p. 1. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ Teo, Lian Huay (25 October 1981). "All rise for the new President". New Nation. p. 2. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ "No deadline on picking new President". The Straits Times. 29 March 1985. p. 14. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ John, Alan (28 August 1985). "Wee Kim Wee to be President". The Straits Times. p. 1. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ "President Ong attends first official function". The Straits Times. 6 September 1993. p. 1. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via NewspaperSG.
- ^ Chew, Hui Min (23 August 2016). "Foreign leaders, diplomats send condolences on passing of former president S R Nathan". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
- ^ "Singapore presidential election won by Tony Tan". BBC News. 27 August 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
- ^ Toh, Elgin (1 September 2017), "Pillay takes on role of acting president: CPA chairman will fill post until after Polling Day on Sept 23, or Nomination Day on Sept 13", The Straits Times, p. A9.
- ^ Tham, Yuen-C (13 September 2017). "Halimah Yacob to be sworn in as Singapore's 8th president on Thursday: PMO". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
- ^ Goh, Yan Han (14 September 2023). "Tharman sworn in as S'pore's 9th president, reiterates plans to unite nation". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
