In turning back the pro-opposition tide, the PAP has successfully demonstrated its winning combination of a sterling track record and responsiveness to voter anger at the last polls, says ST associate opinion editor Lydia Lim.
While the ruling party took a risk by putting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the front and centre of its campaign, the quiet changes in how it has reached out to residents on the ground over the last four years to forge a more favourable image - one that is less arrogant and more willing to listen than before - also deserves credit.
While dominant political groups in South-east Asia, such as Indonesia's Golkar (The Party of Functional Groups) and Malaysia's BN (National Front) are weakening, the PAP's performance in Singapore demonstrates that dominant parties have a future.
Dr Norshahril Saat, a Fellow with the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute, writes that the increase in support can be seen as a vote for the ways the PAP has reinvented itself since GE2011. Some of the key ingredients in its winning strategy: humility, being in touch with the masses and the promise of leadership renewal.
The PAP's stunning election victory does not mean its remaking is complete, argues journalism professor Cherian George. Whether it succeeds in becoming the lead author of the second half of the SG100 story will hinge on whether it manages to "get the politics right" and what it does with the mandate it has just been given.
He writes that the party will need to continue with its match-winning social policies, but also advocates for government leaders to abandon hardline tactics in favour of embracing the principles of an open government, which include institutionalised, transparent mechanisms for government bodies and more protection for dissenting views.
Dr Walter Theseira, a senior lecturer at the Singapore Institute of Management's UniSIM College, believes that the rise of social media, while disrupting the Government's control over the national narrative, may have also eclipsed the importance of voting the opposition into Parliament.
This is because social media has provided an effective means for individual Singaporeans to speak their views directly to those in power. The opposition, he argues, can no longer justify their existence simply by claiming to be a voice for the people, who have since taken that responsibility upon themselves - thanks to social media.
