Halimah binti Yacob (Jawi: حاليمه بنت ياچوب; born 23 August 1954) is a Singaporean politician and the current President of Singapore. Formerly a member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), she was the ninth Speaker of Parliament, from January 2013 to August 2017. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Jurong Group Representation Constituency between 2001 and 2015, and Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representation Constituency between 2015 and 2017. On 7 August 2017, she resigned from her positions as Speaker and MP, and from her membership in the PAP, to stand as a candidate for the 2017 Singapore presidential election. On 14 September 2017, Yacob will be declared as the 8th president of Singapore via a walkover, as no other presidential hopeful was issued the Certificate of Eligibility.Halimah Yacob is of paternal Indian and maternal Malay descent. Her father was a watchman who died when she was eight years old, leaving her to be brought up by her mother. She was educated at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and Tanjong Katong Girls' School, before going on to the University of Singapore where she completed an LLB (Hons) degree in 1978. She was called to the Singapore Bar in 1981. In 2001, she completed an LLM degree at the National University of Singapore, and was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from NUS on 7 July 2016. Halimah worked as a legal officer at the National Trades Union Congress, and became the director of its legal services department in 1992. She was appointed as a director of the Singapore Institute of Labour Studies (now known as the Ong Teng Cheong Institute of Labour Studies) in 1999.
Halimah entered politics in 2001 when she was elected as an MP for the Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC). Following the 2011 general election, Halimah was made a Minister of State at the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Following a Cabinet reshuffle in November 2012, she became a Minister of State at the Ministry of Social and Family Development. She has also served as the Chair of Jurong Town Council. In January 2015, she was co-opted into the PAP's Central Executive Committee, the party's highest decision-making body. At the 2015 general election, Halimah was the sole minority candidate for the People's Action Party group contesting the then-newly-formed Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC. She has spoken out actively against radical Islam, in particular condemning and disassociating from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.On 8 January 2013, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong nominated Halimah Yacob to succeed former Speaker Michael Palmer who resigned after he was revealed to have had an extramarital affair. She was elected Speaker of Parliament on 14 January 2013. Halimah was the first woman to hold this post in the Republic's history. Halimah has served at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) as the Deputy Secretary General, Director of the Legal Services Department and Director of the Women's Development Secretariat.[citation needed] She has also served as the Executive Secretary of the United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries.Halimah was elected as the Workers' Vice-Chairperson of the Standards Committee of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva from 2000 to 2002 and in 2005. In 2003 and 2004, she was the Workers' Spokesperson for the ILC Committee on Human Resources Development and Training. - 2017 presidential election
