National Solidarity Party (Singapore)

The National Solidarity Party (abbreviation: NSP) is a social-liberal political party in Singapore and sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It had participated in all the parliamentary elections since the 1988 general election but had yet to win any seats in the Parliament of Singapore.
The NSP was founded by a group of middle-class businessmen and women on 6 March 1987. The founding president and secretary-general of the party were Kum Teng Hock and Soon Kia Seng respectively. Kum was a former member of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) while Soon was the ex-chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party.
According to its 1995 manifesto, the main political objective of the NSP was to organise and maintain a democratic movement that would ensure the solidarity and establishment of a just political system and standard of living. The party believed in a multi-party political system so that the rights and interests of the people could be proportionately represented. The NSP also aimed to establish an open and freely competitive economic environment that would provide sufficient opportunities for local enterprises. Today, the NSP continues to strive for these values. It continues to promote the establishment of a multi-party political system as well as a pro-business economic environment.
NSP made their political debut in the 1988 general election, and has contested in every election since. NSP also had contested in the 1992 by-election for the constituency of Marine Parade GRC, which was led by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Ahead of the 2001 general election, the NSP became a founding member of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), along with the Singapore Justice Party (SJP), the Singapore People's Party (SPP) and the Singapore Malay National Organization (PKMS). The Chairman of the alliance was the SPP leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Potong Pasir, Chiam See Tong (who was the SDA's only candidate-elect until 2011).
On the polling day, the party's secretary General Steve Chia, who contested the Chua Chu Kang Single Member Constituency but defeated with a vote share of 34.6%, was the highest percentage secured by a losing opposition candidate at the election, and Chia assumed his Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) post, becoming the first non Workers' Party (WP) NCMP to do so.
However, despite Chia losing his election but increased his margin to 39.63% in the 2006 general election, he lost his position as a NCMP and did not return to Parliament (the highest percentage among losing candidates was for the WP team of Aljunied GRC at 43.9%; party's chairman Sylvia Lim succeeded Chia for the NCMP role).
In 2007, the NSP decided to withdraw from the SDA with a view to "explore new possibilities through wider latitude to manoeuvre, re-engineer, and rebuild the NSP". Sebastian Teo also took over the leadership of the party from Chia. The party acquired a new collective colour of orange for their activity jersey as a sign of vitality, rebirth and unity, and the newsletter underwent a transformation and adopted the new name North Star.
In the 2011 election, the party fielded the most candidates of all Opposition parties for the election, with 24 candidates contesting in four Group Representation Constituencies (Chua Chu Kang GRC, Jurong GRC, Marine Parade GRC and Tampines GRC), and four Single Member Constituencies (Mountbatten SMC, Pioneer SMC, Radin Mas SMC and Whampoa SMC). This election saw a boost in electoral support for the NSP, notably receiving endorsement from the newly formed Reform Party along their supporters. The party was led by Secretary-General Goh Meng Seng (a former WP candidate), and saw introductions to prominent candidates, which include Nicole Seah, Hazel Poa, Tony Tan Lay Thiam and Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss.
However, despite fielding notable candidates such as former MP Cheo Chai Chen and entrepreneur Poa, the party was defeated in all the contested constituencies; Goh resigned from his post shortly after the election.
The party expressed intention to contest five constituencies (MacPherson, Marine Parade, Pioneer, Sembawang and Tampines), but the party shortly dropped out on MacPherson and Marine Parade, citing the possibility of multi-cornered contests that were likely to dilute the votes from the incumbent opposition WP and reducing the chance for a more diverse Parliament.
The party later changed their mind a few days later, and announced their intention to contest MacPherson SMC citing closeness with the constituency as they had contested there in the prior election. In a response, a few party members, such as acting secretary-general Poa and a CEC member Fazli Talip, resigned from NSP, citing that they were strongly opposed to the controversial decision to contest MacPherson. The party initially fielded Chia as the candidate, but he later withdrew on 23 August due to the online abuse that received from him, and the party eventually chose Cheo as a candidate. Lim Tean was appointed as acting-secretary general following Poa's resignation.
Prior to the election, a few prominent members, such as Seah and Chong-Aruldoss, left the party. Seah and Chong-Aruldoss later joined WP and SPP, respectively. During the campaigning period, Cheo drew public outcry on an interview citing MacPherson's incumbent Tin Pei Ling's status as a new mother was "her weakness" and saying that she might spend more time focusing on her child than on her constituents, and later claimed it as a joke. On 8 September, Tampines GRC candidate Choong Hon Heng's rally on booing PAP had gone viral. The party failed to win any of the constituencies, and Cheo had his S$14,500 electoral deposit forfeited as a consequence of garnering less than 12.5% of the valid votes cast for MacPherson (215 or 0.82%).
Lim resigned from his post and left NSP in May 2017, and formed his new party, Peoples Voice, in October 2018.
The party fielded a total of 10 candidates and contested Sembawang and Tampines in the 2020 elections. The party also expressed interest in contesting MacPherson and Pioneer, but both withdrew and respectively backed the People's Power Party and Progress Singapore Party. Ahead of elections, Chia resigned from NSP and joined the Singapore People's Party and became the new secretary-general a year later.
On polling day on 10 July, the party fail to win any GRCs, but improved their vote share for each GRC.
In October 2023, NSP joined Singapore United Party, Red Dot United and former SDA partner SPP to form a political alliance, The Coalition. The alliance will not be officially registered but partners will contest the next election under their own party tickets while collaborating their efforts.
In late-2007, the NSP formulated a set of political objectives and mission statements. According to its website, these are:
Political Ideology: The National Solidarity Party believes in a multi-political system that upholds economic progress and nation-building as the twin pillars of a strong and vibrant Singapore where the supremacy of the citizenry is respected and the natural rights of every individual may be enjoyed in harmony with a fair and equitable society.
Mission Statements: NSP exists to uphold democracy and to provide constructive policies. The Party positively promotes the establishment of a multi-party political system. It envisions to be a credible and caring political party in the pursue of rational and responsible politics in the interest of Singapore and Singaporeans.
Core Values:
The NSP is led by the president while the secretary-general is the second-in-command.
Due to a merger with the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) in the 2001 and 2006 elections, collective figures represent the SDA total inclusive of the NSP, while figures in parenthesis/brackets refer to the NSP only.