| Central Executive Committee | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Unicameral |
| Timeline | |
| Country | Singapore |
| Established | 1957 |
| Members | 18 |
| Election | |
| voting system | Direct non-competitive elections |
| Last election | 9 November 2011[1] |
| Meeting place | |
| Parliament House, Singapore | |
The Central Executive Committee (CEC) is the highest ruling committee within Singapore's People's Action Party (PAP) and its "inner circle".
The PAP's organisational structure has Leninist roots whereby a group of elite PAP members known as cadres elect 18 CEC members from a list of candidates. Originally when this structure was organised in 1957, the outgoing committee recommended a list of candidates for the next CEC. This has been changed recently so that the CEC nominates eight members and the party caucus selects the remaining ten.
The cadre system of the PAP was started in 1957 by Toh Chin Chye, in an effort to prevent the popular leftist wing of the PAP (which dominated the Party at the grassroots level and many of its committees, and composed much of its membership) from ever taking control of the CEC again.
Before 1957, every party member could vote in CEC elections. However in 1957, the leftists took control of the CEC, and the original founders (the "Peranakan Circle") lost control. After Lim Yew Hock, widely accused of violating human rights, cracked down on many of the leftist leaders in the CEC in 1957 (as well as many non-PAP leftist leaders in general), the Peranakan Circle regained control of the CEC.