# Singapore Democratic Alliance

The Singapore Democratic Alliance (abbreviation: SDA) is a political coalition between Singapore Malay National Organization (PKMS) and Singapore Justice Party (SJP). The SDA was formed in 2001 and initially consisted of four political parties, PKMS, SJP, National Solidarity Party (NSP) and Singapore People's Party (SPP).
As of 2023, only SJP and PKMS are in the alliance.

## History

SDA was first established in 2001 by Chiam See Tong where he want to provide a common grouping under which different opposition parties could stand as a political coalition in elections against the ruling People's Action Party (PAP). The alliance initially consisted of his party SPP, NSP, SJP and PKMS. It was the first coalition to be formed in post-independence since 1963, after the now-defunct Singapore Alliance Party. Chiam became the first chairman of SDA. The logo of SDA was a star and four interlocking circles.
SDA contested in both the 2001 and 2006 elections.
In 2007, the NSP withdrew in hopes of rejuvenating the party.
In 2009, Chiam spoke of the possibility of having Reform Party (RP) to join the SDA. Later in 2010, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, the secretary general of Reform Party (RP), met with Chiam and discussed for RP to join SDA. RP had set out a list of 11 conditions which Chiam and his wife, Lina Loh, mostly agreed to. However, the rest of the leadership of SDA voted not to make a decision on the list of conditions. The discussion by the SDA council was leaked to the press and as a result, Jeyaretnam decided not to join the SDA.
In October 2010, Chiam replaced SDA's secretary general, Desmond Lim, with Mohamad Hamim Aliyas during a central executive committee meeting of SPP. SPP founder and chairman Sin Kek Tong said Chiam's move is due to Lim opposing RP joining the SDA. However, in a SDA council meeting held shortly after, the council rejected the decision of Chiam and Lim remained as the secretary general.
On 2 March 2011, SPP withdrew from the coalition due to a few reasons. Prior to exiting the coalition, the SDA Council voted to relieve Chiam as chairman three days earlier due to his health reasons and voted not decide on a list of conditions for RP, which Chiam had invited, to join the SDA.
SDA now consists of PKMS and SJP. The chairperson was later succeeded by the SJP's leader Desmond Lim.
However, the separation of Chiam's SPP saw waning on the alliance, where they fell short on winning the elections. In the 2011 elections, neither the NSP (who field a large slate of candidates for the election), SDA, or SPP were successful: Lim became the only candidate forfeiting his electoral deposit (S$16,000) in the only three-cornered contest in the newly formed Punggol East SMC (a ward carved out from the neighbouring Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, which the alliance also contest); and members who joined as independents contesting in Tanjong Pagar GRC (the election's only uncontested constituency) was disqualified during nomination day. In the 2015 election, SDA fielded their only team of six in the only contested constituency of Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC, but with no success.
In the 2013 by-election, Lim contested again, but later conceded defeat during vote counting; ultimately, he garnered only 0.53% of the valid votes cast for the election, resulting him as the second candidate in history (after United People's Front candidate Harbans Singh) to have his deposit forfeited on both times, and consequently set its record-worst score for a candidate in post-independence Singapore.
Leading up to the 2020 election, four political parties: Singaporeans First, People's Power Party, Reform Party and Democratic Progressive Party, had proposed to form a joint alliance. Subsequently, the four parties decided to apply to join the SDA, but the go-ahead did not materialize. SDA had contested the 2020 election, marked as Lim's last election leading the SDA. While the party only contested Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, a three-cornered contest arose with the participation of a third political party, Peoples Voice. This was the second time in Singapore's election history that a multi-cornered fight had taken place in a GRC (the first being 1992's by-election under Marine Parade GRC). SDA scored 23.67% of the votes while PV ended up losing their deposits after garnering 12.18%.
On 11 March 2025, Lim announced that he had reversed his earlier decision to step down as chairman of the SDA.

## Member parties
### Current members

| Logo | Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Position | Leader(s) | Seats contested |
| Logo | Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Position | Leader(s) | Seats contested | Votes (%) |
| | | SJP | Singapore Justice Party | – | – | Desmond Lim | – | – |
| | | PKMS | Singapore Malay National Organization Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura | Ketuanan Melayu | Right-wing | Abu Mohamed | – | – |

### Former members

* Democratic Progressive Party (until 2007)
* National Solidarity Party (until 2007)
* Singapore People's Party (until 2011)

## Leadership

| No | Name | Years |
| 1 | Chiam See Tong | 2001–2011 |
| 2 | Desmond Lim | 2001–present |

## Former elected Members of Parliament

| No | Name | Constituency | Length of service (cumulative) | Notes |
| 1 | Chiam See Tong | Potong Pasir SMC | 1997–2011 | Party chairman from 2001 to 2011. He served as the MP for Potong Pasir SMC (2001–2011). Did not seek re-election under SDA banner. |
| 2 | Steve Chia | Non-Constituency Member of Parliament | 2001–2006 | Served as NCMP from 2001 to 2006. |

## Electoral history

Due to an alliance, the number of respective seats and the results combined from the four parties (NSP, SJP, SPP and PKMS) were reflected in the table. NSP and SPP left after the 2006 general election.

### Parliament

| Election | Seats up for election | Seats contested by party | Seats won by walkover | Contested seats won | Contested seats lost | Total seats won | Change | Total votes | Share of votes | Popular vote | Resulting Government | Party leader |
| 2001 | 84 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 1 / 84 | 1 | 75,248 | 27.6% | 12.0% | Largest Opposition (+1 NCMP) | Chiam See Tong |
| 2006 | 84 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 1 / 84 | | 145,628 | 32.5% | 13.0% | Opposition | Chiam See Tong |
| 2011 | 87 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 / 87 | 1 | 55,988 | 30.06% | 2.78% | No seats | Desmond Lim |
| 2015 | 89 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 / 89 | | 46,508 | 27.11% | 2.06% | No seats | Desmond Lim |
| 2020 | 93 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 / 93 | | 37,179 | 23.67% | 1.49% | No seats | Desmond Lim |

### Parliament By-elections

| Election | Seats up for election | Seats contested by party | Contested seats won | Contested seats lost | Total votes | Share of votes | Outcome of election | Constituency contested |
| 2013 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 168 | 0.53% | No seat | Punggol East SMC |