Following the developments of Jul. 17, Singapore's Parliament is in the unusual situation of having not just one or two, but four vacant seats.

Despite this, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has confirmed that he has no plans to call an immediate general election.

Resignations of Tan Chuan-Jin and Cheng Li Hui

On Jul. 17, PM Lee announced that two Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to the People's Action Party (PAP) will resign from their roles and the party.

They are Tan Chuan-Jin, who was also Speaker of the Parliament, and Cheng Li Hui.

Tan was a member of Marine Parade GRC while Cheng was a member of Tampines GRC.

PM Lee disclosed that the two were in an "inappropriate relationship", which continued even after they were told to stop.

No immediate GE will be called

However, PM Lee confirmed that he would not be calling for an immediate general election, in response to a question from the media.

He added that the next election is due by 2025, and we are currently in the second half of the present government's term, with Parliament just having opened recently.

"We have a full agenda for this term, we're working at it and that's what we will focus on," he said.

With regards to GRCs with missing members, PM Lee said that "one of the advantages" of having a GRC is that the other members will be able to step up and ensure constituents are well-looked after.

Four empty seats

Following the resignations of Tan and Cheng as MPs, this means there will be vacant seats in their respective GRCs.

Their duties as MPs will be covered by Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli respectively.

But Tan and Cheng's seats aren't the only ones that are now vacant.

Former Cabinet member, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, resigned from his role as Senior Minister and membership in the PAP in order to run for the Presidency of Singapore.

Tharman therefore vacated his seat in Jurong GRC.

Aside from the PAP MPs, a Workers' Party member who was elected in the 2020 general election also vacated her seat.

Raeesah Khan, who stood for election in Sengkang GRC, stepped down in Nov. 2021 from her party and Parliament roles.

There was an investigation by Parliament's Committee of Privileges into Khan's lie in a Parliamentary speech. There was also no by-election in Sengkang.

The Workers' Party said that Khan's Compassvale ward would be divided up among the other Sengkang MPs, and Faisal Manap of Aljunied will serve as an adviser to the Sengkang team.

While these four seats are confirmed vacant, another GRC is also operating without its full complement of MPs.

Recently, Transport Minister S Iswaran was asked to take a leave of absence by PM Lee. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) confirmed that Iswaran was arrested and released on bail, and is assisting in its investigations.

Iswaran represented West Coast GRC in the previous election.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Jul. 12 that it would be "difficult" for Iswaran to undertake his MP duties, as well as not being in a position to fulfil his ministerial responsibilities.

As such, the other MPs from West Coast GRC will be covering for Iswaran during his leave of absence.

In an Instagram post, Iswaran's fellow West Coast GRC member and National Development Minister Desmond Lee said: "During this time, my fellow West Coast GRC MPs and I will step up and cover his duties on the ground, including Meet-the-People's Sessions (MPS)."

It is unclear, but unlikely that Iswaran will attend Parliament during this period.

Here's the list again:

• Tan Chuan-Jin, Marine Parade
• Cheng Li Hui, Tampines
• Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Jurong
• Raeesah Khan, Sengkang
• S Iswaran, West Coast

Historical vacancies

Parliament has seen vacancies before.

For example, Halimah Yacob left Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC in 2017 to run for the presidency, similar to Tharman.

She would later become President after a walkover.

At the time, it was confirmed that there would be no by-election to replace Halimah, even though she was the minority member of her GRC team.

The reason given was that at the time, Parliament as a whole had enough minority MPs for the purposes of representation.

However, resignations in Single Member Constituencies have triggered by-elections.

Back in 2016, PAP MP David Ong resigned, citing "personal indiscretion."

His seat was contested by PAP's Murali Pillai and SDP's Chee Soon Juan.

Murali won, and would retain his seat in the 2020 general election.

Another Speaker of Parliament's resignation resulted in a by-election, back in 2013.

Michael Palmer of the PAP, who was Speaker at the time, resigned in Dec. 2012 following the revelation that he had been involved in an extra-marital affair.

The by-election for his seat in Punggol East SMC was contested by Koh Poh Koon of the PAP and Lee Li Lian of the Workers' Party.

Also throwing their hats in the ring were Kenneth Jeyaretnam of the Reform Party, and Desmond Lim of the Singapore Democratic Alliance.

Lee won the four-cornered fight in January 2013.

However, she would lose her contest for the same seat in the 2015 general election to Charles Chong of the PAP. The seat was later absorbed into Sengkang GRC.

Top image from Tan Chuan-Jin and Raeesah Khan's Facebook pages and Cheng Li Hui's Instagram.