section_path: History/First years in government
section_name: First years in government
paragraph_text: First years in government
  
  The PAP eventually won the 1959 general election. The election was also the first one to produce a fully elected parliament and a cabinet wielding powers of full internal self-government. The party has remained in power ever since, winning a majority of seats in every successive general election. Lee, who was chosen to be the first Prime Minister after an internal election within the PAP, would eventually helm this post for the next 31 years, requested the British for the release of the left-wing members of the PAP, including the likes of Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, Sandrasegaran Woodhull, James Puthucheary and Devan Nair.
  
  In 1961, the Singapore Trades Union Congress (STUC), which had backed the PAP back in 1959, split into the pro-PAP National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the non-affiliated and more leftist Singapore Association of Trade Unions (SATU). The SATU collapsed in 1963, following the now PAP-led government's crackdown and detention of its leaders during Operation Coldstore and its subsequent official deregistration on 13 November 1963. The NTUC remains as the sole trade union centre in the country today and continues to have a close relationship with the PAP.