Singapore’s General Election 2025 has seen a surge in foreign interference attempts, with authorities and political parties responding swiftly to protect the country’s secular and independent electoral process.
Workers’ Party Meeting with Religious Teacher
Media attention focused on a meeting between some Workers’ Party (WP) Malay-Muslim candidates and Noor Deros, a Singaporean Islamic religious teacher based in Malaysia.
Noor Deros, who is not an accredited religious teacher in Singapore, had posted a list of demands for political parties and claimed that the WP was the only party to respond to him.
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The WP issued a statement on 26 April affirming that “no promises, commitments or agreements were made to any individual, including Noor Deros, in exchange for political support for WP candidates.”
The party emphasized its commitment to Singapore’s secular, multi-racial society and stated that it meets with various members of religious communities as part of its political work.
WP leaders, including Faisal Manap and Pritam Singh, reiterated the party’s stance that religion must remain separate from politics.
WP chief Pritam Singh later clarified that a meeting had occurred after a Muslim committee member requested to speak to Mr Faisal as well as other Malay/Muslim members in WP.
Initially supposed to revolve around several Islamic teachers and senior Malay-Muslim religious leaders, the meeting took a turn when Mr Noor showed up with multiple demands.
“If this gentleman thinks his advocacy will lead to the issues being brought up by the WP, he is sadly mistaken,” said Mr Singh on 26 April 2025.
“We don’t work politics like that in Singapore. We don’t work politics like that in the WP.”
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Noor Deros
Noor Deros is a Singaporean who now resides in Kuala Lumpur and serves as the second vice-president at a Malaysian NGO.
He graduated from Al-Azhar University and previously led a Singapore student welfare group in Egypt.
In his social media posts, Noor Deros called on his followers to support WP candidates and criticized the government’s approach to issues affecting the Malay-Muslim community.
He later clarified that his interactions with the WP did not result in any promises or agreements.
Foreign Social Media Posts Blocked
On 25 April 2025, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) directed Meta to block Singapore users’ access to several online election advertisements (OEA) posted on Facebook by foreigners.
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These included posts from two Malaysian politicians-Iskandar Abdul Samad, national treasurer of Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), and Mohamed Sukri Omar, PAS Selangor youth chief-as well as Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff, a former Singaporean detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) who is now an Australian citizen.
The posts, which are no longer accessible in Singapore, criticized the Singapore government’s handling of religious issues and urged Singaporeans to vote along religious lines.
Some posts also expressed support for specific opposition candidates and called on voters to consider religious identity at the ballot box.
Authorities stressed that mixing religion and politics is prohibited in Singapore.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Elections Department Singapore (ELD) stated, “Singapore is a secular state. Bringing religion into politics will undermine social cohesion and harmony, as we have seen in other countries with race- or religion-based politics”.
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Opposition Parties Reject Foreign Interference
Leaders from major opposition parties, including the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), Progress Singapore Party (PSP), and National Solidarity Party (NSP), publicly rejected foreign attempts to sway the election.
SDP secretary-general Chee Soon Juan said, “Stay out. We’re not interested in people coming in here and making endorsements. We’ll fight our own battle.”
PSP founder Tan Cheng Bock and NSP secretary-general Spencer Ng echoed these sentiments, emphasizing that Singaporeans alone should decide the country’s political future.
Investigations into Social Media Manipulation
Authorities are also investigating social media accounts, some created shortly before Nomination Day, that targeted political parties with misleading or false content.
The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) noted that many of these accounts used fake AI-generated images and appeared designed to negatively portray candidates.
The government warned that any deliberate manipulation of social media algorithms by foreign actors to influence domestic politics constitutes foreign interference.
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