Singapore, Apr 15 (PTI) Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday said he was calling a general election at a “critical juncture” as the world becomes more uncertain and unstable.

Singapore’s parliament has been dissolved and the general elections will be held on May 3.

“We are witnessing profound changes in the world. It is becoming more uncertain, unsettled and even unstable. The global conditions that enabled Singapore’s success over the past decades may no longer hold,” said Wong on social media.

“That is why I have called this general election. At this critical juncture, Singaporeans should decide on the team to lead our nation, and to chart our way forward together,” he posted on LinkedIn and X.

Wong advised President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to dissolve the parliament and issue the Writ of Election.

The nomination day is Wednesday, April 23 and the polling day is Saturday, May 3, an official announcement said on Tuesday.

Separately, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) warned about potential cyber threats that voters may face during the election period.

Singapore’s politics is in full swing on social media. Political parties are finalising their lists of candidates and preparing their manifestos ahead of the election.

Wong is expected to field more than 30 new candidates and seek a fresh mandate after taking the premiership about a year ago.

He seeks a second term amid the worst economic turmoil created by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports, political observers said.

Singaporeans are keenly watching the naming of a new team from Wong’s People’s Action Party (PAP) which has ruled the city-state since independence.

The PAP has provided political and economic stability for 60 years and built a colonial-founded fishing village into an Asian trade-finance-focused and export-oriented hub where Asian corporations are seeking funding for going global.

The observers said Singapore faced a challenge if this status could be maintained amid unpredictable instability with China and the US facing each other for a trade tariff war.

Singapore, a predominantly Chinese society with more than century-old deep roots in trade links with China, is in a doldrum as it is also a close ally of the US with American businesses flourishing across Asia out of the “Red Dot”, a popular acronym for the island nation.

Singapore will have to navigate through these troubled times as it would not want to be caught between the giant global economies, given the long-term strategies the island nation has worked out to be among the best trade players amid global market dominants – US and China, said the observers.

“It is definitely an unprecedented challenge,” added an Asian market observer.

Wong spared no word when he last week said Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on his country was “not actions by a friend”.

Wong said Washington’s tariffs were a repudiation of the global trade system the US once championed. PTI GS PY PY PY