Official name

Republic of Singapore

Form of state

Parliamentary democracy

The executive

The prime minister and the cabinet are appointed by the president and are responsible to parliament

Head of state

The president, S R Nathan, took office for a six-year term in 2005

National legislature

Unicameral parliament, which sits for five-year terms, with 84 elected members: nine members of parliament (MPs) are directly elected from single-member constituencies, and 75 are elected in teams of five or six to represent the 14 group representation constituencies (GRCs). At least one member of any group standing for a GRC must be of non-Chinese ethnicity. Currently, one non-constituency MP and nine nominated MPs also sit in parliament, but they have only limited voting rights

Legal system

Courts of first instance ultimately lead, on appeal, to the Supreme Court, members of which are appointed by the president

National elections

The most recent general election took place in 2006; the next is due by February 2012

National government

The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won 66.6% of the vote at the last election and holds 82 seats in parliament. The cabinet was reshuffled in November 2010

Main political organisations

Government: PAP; opposition: Workers' Party (WP), Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)

Main members of cabinet

Prime minister: Lee Hsien Loong

Minister mentor, Prime Minister's Office: Lee Kuan Yew

Prime Minister's Office:

;Lim Swee Say

;Lim Boon Heng

;Lim Hwee Hua

Senior ministers:

;Goh Chok Tong

;Shunmugan Jayakumar

Deputy prime minister & minister for defence: Teo Chee Hean

Deputy prime minister & minister for national security: Wong Kan Seng

Key ministers

Communications, information & the arts: Lui Tuck Yew

Community development: Vivian Balakrishnan

Education: Ng Eng Hen

Environment: Yacoob Ibrahim

Finance: Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Foreign affairs: George Yeo

Health: Khaw Boon Wan

Home affairs & law: K Shanmugam

Manpower: Gan Kim Yong

National development: Mah Bow Tan

Trade & industry: Lim Hng Kiang

Transport: Raymond Lim

Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore

Goh Chok Tong