elections, the People's Action Party (PAP) swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the assembly, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first prime minister of a self-governing Singapore. The executive branch of the Singapore Government remained unchanged following Singapore's merger with Malaysia in 1963, and its subsequent independence in 1965. Since then, the PAP has been returned to power in every general election and has thus formed the Cabinet since 1959. Terminology The term Government of Singapore can have a number of different meanings. At its widest, it can refer collectively to the three traditional branches of government – the Executive branch, Legislative branch (the President and Parliament of Singapore) and Judicial branch (the Supreme Court and Subordinate Courts of Singapore). The term is also used colloquially to mean the Executive and Legislature together, as these are the branches of government responsible for day-to-day governance of the nation and lawmaking. At its narrowest, the term is used to refer to the Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to a particular political party (or coalition of parties) holding a majority of seats in Parliament sufficient to enable the party (or coalition) to form the Cabinet of Singapore – this is the sense intended when it is said that a political party "forms the Government". The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore uses the word Government to mean the Executive branch, made up of the President and the Cabinet. This article describes the Government of Singapore in this technical sense, as well as selected aspects of the Executive branch of the Government. History On 30 January 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles, an Englishman who was at the time the Governor of Bencoolen (now Bengkulu, Indonesia), entered into a preliminary agreement with the Temenggung of Johor, Abdul Rahman Sri Maharajah, for the British East India Company to establish a "factory" or trading post on the island of Singapore. This was confirmed by another agreement signed by Raffles, the Temenggung and Sultan Hussein Shah on 6 February. In June 1823, Singapore ceased to be a dependency of Bencoolen and was placed under the control of the Presidency City of Calcutta (Kolkata) in the Bengal Presidency. On 24 June 1824, Singapore and Malacca were formally transferred to the East India Company, with the result that they came under the control of Fort William. Full cession of Singapore to the company by the Sultan