 the politics of singapore takes the form of a parliamentary representative democratic republic whereby the president of singapore is the head of state, the prime minister of singapore is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. executive power is exercised by the cabinet. cabinet has the general direction and control of the government and is collectively responsible to parliament. like many countries in the world today, there are three separate branches of government: the legislature, executive and judiciary, though not necessarily meaning that there is a separation of power. legislative power is vested in both the government and the parliament of singapore. the legislature is the parliament, which consists of the president as its head and a single chamber whose members are elected by popular vote. the role of the president as the head of state has been, historically, largely ceremonial although the constitution was amended in 1991 to give the president some veto powers in a few key decisions such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of key judiciary, civil service and singapore armed forces posts. he also exercises powers over civil service appointments and internal security matters. ==political background== singaporean politics have been dominated by the people's action party (pap) since the 1959 general election when lee kuan yew became singapore's first prime minister (singapore was then a self-governing state within the british empire). the pap has been in government and won every general election since then. singapore left the commonwealth in 1963 to join the federation of malaysia, but was expelled from the federation in 1965 after lee kuan yew disagreed with the federal government in kuala lumpur. foreign political analysts and several opposition parties including the workers' party of singapore and the singapore democratic party (sdp) have argued that singapore is a de facto one-party state. the economist intelligence unit classifies singapore as a "hybrid" country, with authoritarian and democratic elements. freedom house does not consider singapore an "electoral democracy" and ranks the country as "partly free". reporters without borders ranked singapore 140th out of 167 countries in its 2005 press freedom index. it has also been alleged that the pap employs censorship, gerrymandering and the filing of civ
Politics_of_Singapore Politics_of_Southeast_Asia