PM Lee to call for GE 'soon', urges voters to support his PAP team

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong will call for a general election (GE) "soon" to ask for a new mandate to take Singapore into its next phase.

"Singapore is at a turning point. We have just completed 50 successful years. Now we are starting out on our next 50 years of nationhood," he said at the National Day Rally on Sunday.

The coming GE will be a "crucial" one for the country, because voters will get to decide who will govern Singapore for the next five years. On top of that, they will choose the team of leaders that will work with Singaporeans for the next 15 to 20 years.

Mr Lee, the 63-year-old secretary-general of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), spoke of the need to have the next group of leaders ready to take over, given that the members of his current core team are already in their late-50s and early-60s.

"My team and I take very seriously our responsibility to make sure Singapore lasts beyond us," he said. "We will not be around forever. We must have the next team ready in the wings. The nucleus is there, brought in at the last elections and earlier."

Read more about the coming Singapore General Election here.