1955 Singaporean general election

1955 Singaporean general election

← 1951 2 April 1955 1959 →
25 of the 32 seats ino the Legislative Assembly 17 seats needed for a majority
Registered	300,199
Turnout	52.66% ( 0.61pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader David Marshall Tan Chye Cheng Party LF PP DP Leader's seat Cairnhill SMC Cairnhill SMC (defeated) Did not contest Last election – 6 seats, 45.37% – Seats won 10 4 2 Seat change New 2 New Popular vote 42,300 38,695 32,115 Percentage 27.06% 24.75% 20.54% Swing New 20.62% New   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Lee Kuan Yew Abdul Hamid Jumat Party PAP MCA UMNO Leader's seat Tanjong Pagar SMC Pasir Panjang SMC Ulu Bedok SMC Last election – – – Seats won 3 1 1 Seat change New New New Popular vote 13,634 6,203 5,721 Percentage 8.72% 3.97% 3.66% Swing New New New   Seventh party   Leader Party Malay Union Leader's seat Southern Islands SMC Last election Did not contest Seats won 1 Seat change New Popular vote 1,233 Percentage 0.79% Swing New
Results by constituency
Chief Minister before election Position established Chief Minister after election David Marshall LF

Politics of Singapore
Government Constitution of Singapore Law Human rights
Legislature Parliament Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin (PAP) Leader of the House Indranee Rajah (PAP) Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh (WP) 14th Parliament Constituencies
Executive President of Singapore Halimah Yacob (I) Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong (PAP) Cabinet Ministries
Judiciary Supreme Court of Singapore Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon Court of Appeal Chong Phang Prakash Tay High Court State Courts
Elections Presidential elections General elections
Singapore portal Other countries
v t

General elections were held in Singapore on 2 April 1955 to elect the 25 elected seats in the Legislative Assembly. Nomination day was on 28 February 1955.

Background[]

Following the promulgation of the Rendel Constitution, the 1955 elections were the first occasion on which a majority of the seats were to be elected rather than be appointed by the colonial authorities. The new constitution was written after recommendations by a committee to grant local citizens more autonomy, headed by George Rendel, were passed.

According to the new Constitution, locals would share executive power with the colonial authorities and there would be a Chief Minister among elected legislators. The number of elected seats was increased to 25, with the British government appointing the remaining seven members. For the first time, political parties were permitted to adopt a standard party symbol for all their candidates and independents to select theirs instead of balloting for them.^[1]

The Governor of Singapore and Colonial Secretary posts were replaced by a Chief Secretary, who inherited the power to appoint four nominated Assembly Members. Also scrapped were the seats of the Solicitor-General, two directors, two ex-officios, the three commercial organisations and the City Council representative.

Timeline[]

Changes in electoral boundaries[]

Results[]

Much to the surprise for British, who had anticipated a Progressive victory and its leader, Tan Chye Cheng, to emerge as Chief Minister, it was the Labour Front that garnered the most seats and its chairman, David Marshall, thus became Singapore's first Chief Minister. Both losing and winning parties were shocked by the results.^[1] Labour Front formed a government with support of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), UMNO and the Malay Union.

In its first elections, the newly formed People's Action Party, led by lawyer and former Progressive Party election agent Lee Kuan Yew, chose to field only a handful of candidates to protest against the Rendel Constitution. As independent member Ahmad Ibrahim joined PAP following the election, PAP had 4 members in the Assembly and thus Lee became the new Leader of the Opposition.^[2]

The election saw the electorate multiply 6 folds. Voter turnout barely increased by 0.61% to 52.66%. 6 of the 25 constituencies saw voter turnout less than 50%. The lowest was that of Geylang which saw only 40.84% turning up to vote. This surpassed the City Constituency's 43.93% turnout in 1951 and with compulsory voting introduced in the next 1959 General Election, this was the lowest turnout in a constituency in the non-compulsory voting period (1948-1959). The constituency with the highest voter turnout was that of Southern Islands at 69.79%. The election's best performing candidate was Labour Front candidate and Future Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock who polled 86.48% of the votes. The worst performing candidate was Independent candidate Chua Kim Watt who polled just 0.55% of the votes in Farrer Park. Labour Front leader and Chief Ministerial candidate David Saul Marshall won his Cairnhill constituency with 47.58% of the votes. Future Prime Minister of Singapore and PAP leader Lee Kuan Yew won his Tanjong Pagar constituency with 78.33% over his two rival candidates making it the second best performance after Lim Yew Hock. Ironically, PP leader Tan Chye Cheng was defeated in Cairnhill by David Marshall and polled just 36.42%. 10 candidates lost their $500 election deposits.

Future Chief Minister of Singapore Lim Yew Hock won with the biggest margin of 78.58% while Malay Union candidate Mohamed Sidik bin Abdul Hamid won with the narrowest margin of just 1.15%.

Out of the 7 non-elected seats, 3 were ex-officio members namely: Sir William Goode (the Chief Secretary of Singapore), Sir John Edward Davies (the Attorney-General of Singapore) and Thomas Mure Hart, the Finance Secretary of Singapore.

4 members were nominated out of which 2 were from the Labour Front and 2 Independents. This gave the LF 12 seats. The Labour Front formed a Coalition Government with UMNO and MCA each having 1 seat. The LF-UMNO-MCA Coalition had 14 seats and with British support (3 ex-officio members) had 17 seats just enough for a majority in the 32-seat Assembly. On 6 April 1955, David Marshall was sworn in as the First Chief Minister of Singapore making him also the First Head of Government in the country.

As of 2021, this election remains the only election to have produced a minority government and a hung legislature. It also remains the only election to have produced a Non-PAP Government in the history of Singapore.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Labour Front	42,300	27.06	10	New
	Progressive Party	38,695	24.75	4	–2
	Democratic Party	32,115	20.54	2	New
	People's Action Party	13,634	8.72	3	New
	Malayan Chinese Association	6,203	3.97	1	New
	United Malays National Organisation	5,721	3.66	1	New
	Labour Party	1,325	0.85	0	–2
	Malay Union	1,233	0.79	1	New
	Independents	15,098	9.66	3	+2
Total		156,324	100.00	25	+16
Valid votes		156,324	98.89
Invalid/blank votes		1,751	1.11
Total votes		158,075	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		300,199	52.66
Source: Singapore Elections

By constituency[]

See also[]

• List of Singaporean electoral divisions (1955–59)

References[]

• Sr, Pugalenthi (1996) Elections in Singapore VJ Times International Pte Ltd, Singapore ISBN 981-221-025-3

External links[]

• General Elections 1955 Singapore Elections
• Results of 1955 election in Singapore