But Lee gave no indication of such a move in his press conference on Saturday, and Chan Chun Sing, a key member of the 4G group that picked Heng as their leader, said the younger ministers had “no discussion on any change in plan”.

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Asked about the matter on Sunday, Foreign Minister Vivian echoed these views.

“We are – all of us – in complete unity – behind the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, so there’s no need for any discussions or questions on that,” The Straits Times quoted Vivian as telling reporters. “We are in absolute unity under this issue,” he said.

Vivian, a 19-year veteran of the PAP, said the prime minister’s remarks on Saturday reflected “the need for continuity, the need for rotation and the need for renewal” in government. “And if you look carefully at the composition, and, in fact, at the moves that the Prime Minister has made, it reflects all these three priorities.”

Online, some Singaporeans discussed at length Trade and Industry Minister Chan’s short – and some said curt – 15-second response on Saturday to a question posed to Prime Minister Lee about support among the fourth-generation, or 4G, PAP leaders for Heng.

Lee directed the question to Chan, who is seen as the second most important leader in the 4G group.

Chan said: “We entirely focus on helping our country overcoming economic challenges and saving the jobs at this point in time. We have no plans to do otherwise. And we have no plans, no discussion on any change in plan.”

Keeping with PAP tradition, party elders stayed out of the 2018 decision on who will lead the party – and consequently the country – after Prime Minister Lee. Instead, Heng was picked as primus inter pares, or “first among equals” by his contemporaries.

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PAP supporters in turn pointed out that Heng’s five-person team in the East Coast constituency had gone up against formidable opponents from the opposition Workers’ Party that included the charismatic Nicole Seah, a 33-year advertising executive who has amassed a large following among millennials since she first contested elections in 2011.

Heng at the eleventh hour unveiled plans to move out of the Tampines ward where he was an incumbent to contest in the hot seat of East Coast, in a move described by commentators as aimed at burnishing his electoral credentials before the premiership.

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Singapore election: Prime Minister says he has ‘clear mandate’ despite slipping support

Singapore election: Prime Minister says he has ‘clear mandate’ despite slipping support

The Workers’ Party’s strong showing in the East Coast precinct was part of an overall fillip in support for the party in the six districts it contested.

It won 10 out of the 21 seats it contested – heralding a landmark moment for a country that has seen the PAP govern with an overwhelming super majority for the better part of the last six decades. The PAP won the remaining 83 seats in the 93-seat parliament.

Prime Minister Lee, 68, who kept a large number of party veterans in important portfolios in Saturday’s cabinet reshuffle, said in a Facebook post that the new composition of his government had a “mix of experience and ideas that will bring us through the Covid-19 crisis and beyond”.

“It has the experienced senior members, tempered by the many challenges they have gone through,” he said. And “it has younger ministers – Heng Swee Keat, Chan Chun Sing, and the others, who are increasingly setting the agenda, and preparing to take over from me and my older colleagues.”