SINGAPORE: More than 415,000 people, equivalent to over 12 per cent of Singapore’s citizens, have visited parliament to pay their respects to former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, officials said on Saturday.

An update from the State Funeral Organising Committee said the queue for mourners to enter the legislature would be closed at 8pm in preparation for the Asian statesman’s cremation on Sunday.

Surging crowds late Friday forced the government to suspend the queue to enter parliament for safety reasons, but it was reopened before dawn Saturday once the backlog was cleared.

Lee’s body has been lying in state in parliament’s main lobby since Wednesday after he died on Monday at the age of 91.

He is to be cremated in a private ceremony on Sunday after a state funeral to be attended by Asia-Pacific leaders and world dignitaries.

On Saturday, VIP visitors at the public wake included Lee’s old friend former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

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