Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Tharman Shanmugaratnam PPA(E) (born 25 February 1957) is a Singaporean politician and economist who has been the current and ninth President of Singapore since 2023.

Prior to his presidency, Tharman served as Senior Minister of Singapore between 2019 and 2023, Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore between 2011 and 2023, and Deputy Prime Minister between 2011 and 2019. He also served as Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies between 2011 and 2015, Minister for Finance between 2007 and 2015, Minister for Education between 2003 and 2008 and Minister for Manpower between 2011 and 2012.

A former member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Jurong GRC between 2001 and 2023. Tharman made his political debut in the 2001 general election, and had been re-elected to Parliament four times at subsequent general elections in 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2020.

On 8 June 2023, Tharman announced his intention to run for the 2023 presidential election and his scheduled resignation on 7 July 2023 from all his positions in the government and as a member of the PAP and his division was being covered by other members in Jurong GRC till 2025 general election when it was changed to West Coast–Jurong West GRC, as the presidency is a non-partisan office.

On 2 September 2023, Tharman was announced as the winner after receiving 70.41% of the vote in a landslide victory and was elected as the ninth president of Singapore. He is the first presidential candidate of non-Chinese descent to win an openly contested (non-reserved) presidential election in Singapore. Currently, he is also the only presidential candidate to receive the largest vote percentage in a multi-candidate election.