Quora Answer: What if the Malaysian Backdoor Government Happened in Singapore?

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.