Liberal Socialist Party

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The Liberal Socialist Party (LSP) is a defunct political party which was formerly active within the politics of Singapore. It was formed from the merger of the Singapore Progressive Party (SPP) and the Democratic Party (DP) in the 1950s. The DP is not to be confused with the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). The merger occurred in order to consolidate their relatively compatible and similar aims, that of gradual and nonradical progressivism implementing liberal policies. The ideology should not be identified as libertarian 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 the popular 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 ruling People's Action Party (PAP) gained dominance. The SPA itself would fade away during the incidents of merger, ensuing heated PAP-UMNO relations, and a shifted political focus shifted to an additional struggle between the PAP and the Barisan Sosialis. It ceased to exist by 1965, when Singapore became fully independent, and never had the chance to win any seats.