With Tharman Shanmugaratnam winning Singapore’s presidential election, he joins a long list of Indian-origin leaders who are dominating politics at important world capitals.

Mr. Shanmugaratnam, 66, received 70.4 per cent of the votes in the presidential election held on Friday.

“Singaporeans have chosen Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam to be our next president by a decisive margin,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said as he congratulated Tharman on Saturday.

He is among several leaders of Indian heritage who have ascended to the highest echelon of public service globally.

His victory signifies the rising influence of Indians across the globe.

Growing influence in U.S.

In the United States the growing influence of the Indian-American community can be seen in the success of Kamala Harris, who became the first woman and the first coloured Vice President of the country.

She was a senator for California from 2017 to 2021. Harris, a Democrat, also served as the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017. She was born to Indian and Jamaican parents in California.

In the crucial midterm elections in November, a record five Indian-American lawmakers from the ruling Democrat Party ¬ Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Ami Bera and Shri Thanedar ¬ were elected to the US House of Representatives.

Harmeet Dhillon, a prominent politician in California, recently contested the election for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Indian-origin leaders like Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy have launched their bid for the White House in 2024.

Rishi Sunak became Britain’s first Indian-origin Prime Minister last year. He is the youngest British prime minister in 210 years. He is also Britain’s first Hindu Prime Minister. Goan-origin Suella Braverman is serving as his Home Secretary.

Claire Coutinho is the second Goan-origin minister after Braverman in the Sunak Cabinet.

She recently got a big promotion as his new Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary.

Under Sunak’s predecessor, Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, Priti Patel was the Home Secretary. Alok Sharma was the International Development Secretary in the Johnson Cabinet.

Ireland’s Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Eric Varadkar is also of Indian origin. Varadkar is the third child and only son of Ashok and Miriam Varadkar. His father, a doctor, was born in Mumbai and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s.

Antonio Costa has been the Prime Minister of Portugal since 2015. He is half Indian and half Portuguese.

Anita Anand is the first Hindu to become a federal minister in Canada. Anand assumed the role of President of the Treasury Board on July 26, 2023, as part of a major cabinet shuffle.

Anand’s parents were Indians. Her father was from Tamil Nadu and her mother was from Punjab.

Apart from Anand, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet has two more Indian-origin members– Harjit Sajjan and Kamal Khera.

Priyanca Radhakrishnan is the first person of Indian origin to become a Minister in New Zealand. Born in Chennai to Malayali parents, she is currently the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector.

Christine Carla Kangaloo, the president-elect of Trinidad and Tobago, was born into an Indo-Trinidadian family.

Pritam Singh, an Indian-origin lawyer, and author, has been serving as Leader of the Opposition in Singapore since 2020.

Devanand “Dave” Sharma became the first person of Indian origin to become a Member of the Australian Parliament in 2019.

Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the President of Guyana, was born into a Muslim Indo-Guyanese family in Leonora.

Pravind Jugnauth has been serving as the prime minister of Mauritius since January 2017. He was born into a Hindu Yaduvanshi family in 1961. His great-grandfather migrated to Mauritius from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the 1870s.

Prithvirajsing Roopun, the president of Mauritius since 2019, was born in an Indian Arya Samaj Hindu family.

Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokhi has been the president of Suriname since 2020.

Santokhi was born in 1959 into an Indo-Surinamese Hindu family in Lelydorp.

Wavel Ramkalawan has been serving as the president of Seychelles since October 2020. His grandfather was from Bihar.

According to the 2021 Indiaspora Government Leaders List, more than 200 leaders of Indian heritage have ascended to the highest echelons of public service in 15 countries across the globe, with over 60 of them holding Cabinet positions.

With more than 32 million people of Indian origin (PIOs) globally, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Indians are the largest community population in the world.

New Delhi:

Singapore’s former Indian-origin Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected President on Friday, comfortably securing victory in the city-state’s first contested vote for the largely ceremonial position in more than a decade.

“My fellow Singaporeans, I am truly humbled by the strong endorsement you have given me in our nation’s presidential election. My fellow candidates put full effort and energy into their campaigns, and made this a worthy contest. I thank and commend them,” Mr Shanmugaratnam posted on Facebook.

“Above all I thank my fellow Singaporeans, whichever way you voted, for your interest and calm engagement in the issues raised in the election. I believe the vote for me and what I stood for is a vote of confidence in Singapore itself, a vote of optimism in how we can progress together and support each other as Singaporeans,” he said.

Singaporeans headed to the polls that were closely watched as an indication of support for the ruling party after a rare spate of scandals, but the longtime stalwart of the party won more than two-thirds of the vote over two rivals.

“I believe that it’s a vote of confidence in Singapore. It’s a vote of optimism for a future in which we can progress together and support each other as Singaporeans,” the former Finance Minister said in a speech before the results were announced.

“I’m humbled by this vote. It is not just a vote for me, it is a vote for Singapore’s future,” he said, as he won 70.4 per cent of the vote to win a six-year term.

While the presidency is a non-partisan post under the constitution, political lines had already been drawn ahead of the election to replace incumbent Halimah Yacob, who ran unopposed for her six-year term in 2017.

Singapore:

Former Singapore deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected president Friday, according to official results, in the city-state’s first contested vote for the largely ceremonial position in more than a decade.

The Elections Department declared the 66-year-old economist as the winner over two rival candidates after securing 70.4 percent of ballots cast.

“I declare Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam as the candidate duly elected as the president of Singapore,” said election returning officer Tan Meng Dui.

Mr Shanmugaratnam replaces incumbent Halimah Yacob who ran unopposed for her six-year term in 2017.

“I believe that it’s a vote of confidence in Singapore. It’s a vote of optimism for a future in which we can progress together,” Mr Shanmugaratnam said in a speech before the results were announced.

There are stringent requirements for the position, which formally oversees the city’s accumulated financial reserves and holds the power to veto certain measures and approve anti-graft probes.

Observers said Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s win is a boost for the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which is widely perceived to favour his candidacy.

The party that has ruled Singapore continuously since 1959 has been hurt by a rare spate of political scandals ahead of the presidential vote.

Mr Shanmugaratnam, also a former finance minister, was a long-time PAP stalwart before he resigned to run for the non-partisan position of president.

His independence had been questioned during the campaign because of his previous ties with the government.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

People in Singapore will vote on September 1 to elect the country’s ninth President, with former Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam hoping to be the next Indian-origin Singaporean head of the state in a three-way contest.

Mr. Shanmugaratnam, 66, an Indian-origin Singapore-born economist, formally launched his presidential campaign last month with a pledge to evolve the country’s culture to keep it a “shining spot” in the world.

He is one of the three candidates chosen under strict criteria. Singapore has a stringent qualification process for candidates vying for the presidency.

This will be Singapore’s first contested presidential election in years. On August 11, Singapore said it will hold the presidential election on September 1 if more than one person qualifies to run for the highest office.

If only one candidate had become eligible for the post, he or she would have been declared President on nomination day on August 22.

This year, candidates from all races can vie for the post but they cannot be affiliated to any political party on the date of nomination.

Mr. Therman, who joined politics in 2001, has served in the public sector and ministerial positions with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) for over two decades. Chinese-origin Singaporeans Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian are the other two contenders.

Mr. Ng, 75, is a former chief investment officer with the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and former NTUC Income chief.

Mr. Tan, 75, is the former chief of the NTUC Income, also a state-owned union-based insurance group.

“The role (of President) is an elected one, it pertains to state resources, the symbolism of the state, and responsibilities, even if the presidency has curtailed discretion,” said Associate Professor of Political Science Chong Ja Ian at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

“These qualities make the position political by nature, even if the people running for office and who hold office do not have a formal political party membership,” he said.

Mr. Tharman supports his qualification to be the next president of the prosperous state by citing his international experience across various fields including pandemic preparedness and human development.

He also has experience in the government and with the city state’s foreign reserves, estimated to be over Singapore dollars 2 trillion.

“Put quite simply, I know the whole system of safeguarding and using the reserves inside out. No one can fool me,” The Straits Times newspaper quoted him as saying. Mr. Ng offered his three qualifications – competence and experience from his time at GIC and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the de facto central bank, his non-partisan status, and his being a person of trust and responsibility.

Mr. Tan pointed to his 30-year experience as chief executive of NTUC Income.

While Mr. Ng and Mr. Tan have maintained their “no-political affiliation”, Mr. Tharman, who served as Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister between 2011-2019, resigned in July from public and political posts to run for the presidency.

Sellapan Ramanathan, popularly known as S.R. Nathan, a Singaporean politician and civil servant of Tamil has served as the president of Singapore. In 2009, Mr. Nathan surpassed Benjamin Sheares to become Singapore’s longest-serving president.

Chengara Veetil Devan Nair, better known as Devan Nair, served as the third President of Singapore from 1981 until his resignation in 1985. Born in 1923 in Malacca, Malaysia, he was the son of a rubber plantation clerk, who was originally from Thalassery, Kerala.

“I believe I can now best serve Singapore not in politics, but as the President, standing above politics. I have therefore resigned from the PAP, and as Senior Minister and all my other positions in government to run in the election,” Mr. Tharman wrote in an open letter to Singaporeans.

“I have made this decision because the challenges our country faces will grow. The Elected Presidency will be critical. The challenges are not merely about today. We are in a time of transition, both in Singapore and internationally. We are moving into a new era,” he said.

The world is increasingly divided and unstable. Global crises – economic, geopolitical and environmental – are already breaking out more often. They will test all countries and especially smaller countries like Singapore, he said.

Singapore, with no resources, sits in the midst of resource-rich Asia and has grown into an Asian financial hub with links to the world’s two largest markets – China and India.

“At home in Singapore, we are becoming a democracy with more diverse views. I regard this as inevitable and healthy and have said so repeatedly. But our real challenge as Singaporeans is to ensure that this diversity of views does not lead us to a more divided society, like many others,” Mr. Tharman said.

“We must be a democracy with more space for different views and civil society, but a strong centre that gives confidence in the future,” he said.

Mr. Tharman is married to Jane Yumiko Ittogi and has four children.

Mr. NG says he has spent 45 years in public service at MAS and GIC in building “our reserves and I will protect it”. He has a fiancee Sybil Lau, a 45-year-old Singaporean of Canadian origin.

Mr. Tan is married to Tay Siew Hong and they have three children.

More than 2.7 million voters are eligible to cast a ballot. Chinese people account for about 75% of Singapore’s multi-racial population. An estimated 13.5% are Malays and about 9% are Indians, with others making up the rest.

Incumbent President Halimah Yacob’s six-year term will end on September 13. Elected in 2017, she is not seeking a second term.

She is the country’s eighth and first female President. The 2017 presidential poll was a reserved election, in which only members of the Malay community were allowed to contest.

Ms. Halimah was named President then as there were no other candidates. The first presidential election in Singapore was held on August 28, 1993.