Prime Minister of Singapore

The **Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore** is the head of the government of the Republic of Singapore. The President of Singapore chooses as Prime Minister a Member of Parliament (MP) who, he thinks, will have the highest chance of being supported by a majority of MPs.

The first time there was a Prime Minister was in 1959 and it was chosen by the Governor of Singapore and later the Yang di-Pertuan Negara (head of state), when Singapore could have the power to govern as the State of Singapore inside the British Empire. The title of Prime Minister did not change after Singapore merged with the Federation of Malaya, Sarawak and British North Borneo, while Singapore was a state in the Federation of Malaysia from 1963 to 1965, and after independence in 1965.

Lee Kuan Yew was the first prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990 and retired on 26 November 1990. Goh Chok Tong took over Lee Kuan Yew, while Lee Kuan Yew  was given the job of Senior Minister in the Prime Minister's Office. Goh Chok Tong retired on 12 August 2004 and was replaced by Lee Kuan Yew's son Lee Hsien Loong. Goh was given the job of Senior Minister, and the older Lee the job of Minister Mentor.

## List of officeholders

- Political parties

|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Portrait|rowspan="2"|Name|rowspan="2"|Election|colspan="3"|Term of office|rowspan="2"|Political party|rowspan="2"|Cabinet|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="8" width="65"||rowspan="8"|Lee Kuan Yew|1959|rowspan="8" class="nowrap"|5 June 1959|rowspan="8" class="nowrap"|28 November 1990|rowspan="8" style="font-size:95%;"||rowspan="8"|PAP|Lee K. I|
|1963|Lee K. II|||||||||||||
|1968|Lee K. III|||||||||||||
|1972|Lee K. IV|||||||||||||
|1976|Lee K. V|||||||||||||
|1980|Lee K. VI|||||||||||||
|1984|Lee K. VII|||||||||||||
|1988|Lee K. VIII|||||||||||||
|rowspan="4"||rowspan="4"|Goh Chok Tong|—|rowspan="4"|28 November 1990|rowspan="4"|12 August 2004|rowspan="4" style="font-size:95%;"||rowspan="4"|PAP|Goh I|
|1991|Goh II|||||||||||||
|1997|Goh III|||||||||||||
|2001|Goh IV|||||||||||||
|rowspan="5"||rowspan="5"|Lee Hsien Loong|—|rowspan="5"|12 August 2004|rowspan="5"|15 May 2024|rowspan="5" style="font-size:95%;"||rowspan="5"|PAP|Lee H. I|
|2006|Lee H. II|||||||||||||
|2011|Lee H. III|||||||||||||
|2015|Lee H. IV|||||||||||||
|2020|Lee H. V|||||||||||||
||Lawrence Wong|—|rowspan="1"|15 May 2024|rowspan="1"|Incumbent|rowspan="1" style="font-size:95%;"||rowspan="1"|PAP|Wong I|||

## List of deputy prime ministers

- Political parties

|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|Portrait|rowspan="2"|Name|colspan="3"|**Term of office**|rowspan="2"|**Political party**|rowspan="2"|Cabinet|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Toh Chin Chye|5 June 1959|2 August 1968|9 years, 58 days|PAP|Lee K. I Lee K. II||||||
|colspan="8"|Vacant (2 August 1968–1 March 1973)|||||||||||
||Goh Keng Swee|1 March 1973|1 January 1985|11 years, 306 days|PAP|Lee K. IV Lee K. V Lee K. VI||||||
||S. Rajaratnam|1 June 1980|1 January 1985|4 years, 214 days|PAP|Lee K. V Lee K. VI||||||
||Goh Chok Tong|2 January 1985|28 November 1990|5 years, 330 days|PAP|Lee K. VII Lee K. VIII||||||
||Ong Teng Cheong|2 January 1985|1 September 1993|8 years, 242 days|PAP|Lee K. VII Lee K. VIII Goh I Goh II||||||
||Lee Hsien Loong|28 November 1990|12 August 2004|13 years, 258 days|PAP|Goh I Goh II Goh III Goh IV||||||
||Tony Tan|1 August 1995|1 September 2005|10 years, 31 days|PAP|Goh II Goh III Goh IV Lee H. I||||||
||S. Jayakumar|12 August 2004|1 April 2009|4 years, 232 days|PAP|Lee H. I Lee H. II||||||
||Wong Kan Seng|1 September 2005|21 May 2011|5 years, 262 days|PAP|Lee H. I Lee H. II||||||
||Teo Chee Hean|1 April 2009|30 April 2019|10 years, 30 days|PAP|Lee H. II Lee H. III Lee H. IV||||||
||Tharman Shanmugaratnam|21 May 2011|30 April 2019|7 years, 345 days|PAP|Lee H. III Lee H. IV||||||
||Heng Swee Keat|1 May 2019|Incumbent||PAP|Lee H. IV Lee H. V Wong I||||||
||Lawrence Wong|13 June 2022|14 May 2024||PAP|Lee H. V||||||
||Gan Kim Yong <small>(born 1959)</small> <small>MP for Chua Chu Kang GRC</small>|15 May 2024|Incumbent||PAP|Wong I||||||

## Related pages

- Cabinet of Singapore

## Other websites

- Prime Minister's Office

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: Prime Minister
- **body**:
 the Republic of Singapore
- **insigniasize**: 100px
- **image**: Lawrence Wong 20230526.jpg
- **incumbent**: Lawrence Wong
- **incumbentsince**: 15 May 2024
- **department**: Government of Singapore
Cabinet of Singapore
Prime Minister's Office (Singapore), Prime Minister's Office
- **style**: Prime Minister (informal)
Excellency, His Excellency (diplomatic)
- **residence**: Sri Temasek
- **appointer**: President of Singapore, President
- **inaugural**: Lee Kuan Yew
- **termlength**: 5 years; renewable
- **deputy**: Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Deputy Prime Minister
- **salary**: SGD, S$2,200,000 annually