Singapore, Singapore — Singapore’s former deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected president Friday, earning a landslide victory in the city-state’s first contested vote for the largely ceremonial position in more than a decade. The city-state’s government is run by the prime minister, currently Lee Hsien Loong of the PAP, which has ruled Singapore continuously since 1959. “Singaporeans have chosen Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam to be our next President by a decisive margin,” Lee said in a statement. The United States sent a congratulatory message to Shanmugaratnam that pointed to “mutual respect, shared values and common interests” with Singapore. “The presidential election is increasingly being treated as a general election,” said Mustafa Izzuddin, a political analyst with consultancy Solaris Strategies Singapore.
