- Liberal Socialist Party
The Liberal Socialist Party (LSP) is a defunct
political party which was formerly active within thepolitics of Singapore . It was formed from the merger of theSingapore Progressive Party (SPP) and the Democratic Party (DP) in the 1950s. The DP is not to be confused with theSingapore Democratic Party (SDP). The merger occurred in order to consolidate their relatively compatible and similar aims, that of gradual and nonradicalprogressivism implementing liberal policies. The ideology should not be identified aslibertarian socialism as though there might be several similarities, there are rather sharp distinctions.The merger occurred because of the weak performance of both parties in the Singapore general election of 1955, but members started to merge with the
Singapore People's Alliance (SPA) before the next general election of 1959. The LSP contested the general election of 1959 against the SPA, had a significant showing, gaining more than 8% of thepopular vote and contesting 32 seats, but failed to win any of them. Following the election a most of the LSP merged with the SPA and the rest of the LSP died out as the now rulingPeople's Action Party (PAP) gained dominance. The SPA itself would fade away during the incidents of merger, ensuing heatedPAP-UMNO relations , and a shifted political focus shifted to an additional struggle between the PAP and theBarisan Sosialis . It ceased to exist by 1965, when Singapore became fully independent, and never had the chance to win any seats.
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