The following is my answer to a Quora
question: “What if the Malaysian backdoor government
happened in Singapore?”
In 1959 general election for the Legislative Assembly, the predecessor of Parliament, the PAP won 43 of the 51 seats available, a landslide. In 1961, the Left Wing of the party, lead by Lin Chin Siong and Lee Siew Choh, quit the party, leaving the PAP with a one seat majority. Due to this incident there was an amendment to the Constitution, Article 46 (2), where is the seat of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant if:
(b) if he ceases to be a member of, or is expelled or resigns from, the political party for which he stood in the election;
This alone precludes the formation of any backdoor government in Singapore. Should Members of Parliament leave the party, the seat becomes vacant, and they cannot form a new government. This would lead to a by election for the seat, if it is single seat ward. If it is a group representation constituency, if there is more than one, there will be a by-election for the entire constituency. If this is more widespread, it would lead to a general election.
The Singapore
electorate would not think well of such politicians, and they would be viewed
as self-serving. This would be the end
of their political career. There will be
no backdoor governments here.
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