Who's sitting where: Singapore Parliament releases seating arrangements

The seating plan for the 15th term of Parliament, set to convene on Sept 5, has been revealed.

As per tradition, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong takes the middle spot of the first row on the right side of the Speaker.

He will be flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam.

In the previous term of Parliament, PM Wong was seated between Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and then-Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.

Meanwhile, the remaining 14 Cabinet ministers fill out the rest of the row.

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah, who is a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, takes up her usual spot next to the Speaker.

Behind the Cabinet ministers are the senior ministers of state, followed by the ministers of state and senior parliamentary secretaries.

The remaining seats on the right side of the Speaker will be filled up by several first-term MPs.

With the Singapore Parliament’s layout modelled after the Westminster system, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh sits directly across from PM Wong.

The Workers’ Party (WP) chief is joined by the chairpersons of the government parliamentary committees.

They are 12 groups made up of People’s Action Party (PAP) backbenchers which scrutinise various ministries’ legislation and programmes.

The new heads of the government parliamentary committees were named in July.

Labour chief Ng Chee Meng is also in the row, while the rest of the PAP and WP MPs fill out the left side of the House.

Following the May 3 General Election, the 15th Parliament has 99 MPs, an increase from the 95 in the previous term.

The PAP has 87 seats, with the rest filled by the WP. 

The opposition party’s team of 12 is its largest ever in Parliament. It has 10 elected MPs and gained two Non-Constituency MPs in Eileen Chong and Andre Low.

There will be a total of 29 first-time MPs sworn — 24 from the PAP and five from the WP.

The incumbent, Seah Kian Peng, will be nominated for re-election as Speaker.

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will then deliver his opening address, where he will outline the priorities, policies and programmes of the Government.

Debates on the President's Address will subsequently occur between Sept 22 and 26.

[[nid:719076]]

chingshijie@asiaone.com