The 1959 Singapore legislative assembly general election was a general election held in Singapore on 30 May 1959 to choose the members of the Legislative Assembly of Singapore. The election was distinctive in being the first election in which all the seats were completely determined by the population as per the new Constitution of Singapore of 1959; in previous elections, some seats had always been chosen by Singapore's colonial authorities. As with other parliamentary elections, the entity with majority of won seats would go on to form the new government.

Candidates were nominated on 25 April 1959 and the actual polls were held on 30 May. The People's Action Party (PAP) eventually won the general election in a landslide , winning 43 out of 51 seats.

The 1959 general election marked the first time in history the PAP became the ruling party of Singapore. Presently it continues to be the ruling party of Singapore, and has never lost control of the Singaporean legislature since the 1959 elections. The 1959 election is strongly linked to Singapore's gain of self rule that followed soon after.

An election of firsts

The 1959 general election was also the first election to be held since full internal self-government was granted by the British Empire, which Singapore was part of at the time. Compulsory voting was also implemented for the first time.

Singapore was not fully independent, as the British still controlled external affairs such as the military and foreign relations. However, Singapore was now a recognised state and the entire Legislative Assembly for the first time was wholly determined by the local population. Previously under the Rendel Constitution, which was a 1955 reform of the Constitution of Singapore, the legislature and its leaders could not fully be determined by the population. The British government instead appointed 7 of the 33 total members, although the rest was by election with limited suffrage. This itself was an improvement from the pre-1955 Legislative Council of Singapore when only 6 out of over twenty members were elected.

Campaign issues and platforms

Discontent with the Labour Front

The ruling party at the time was the Labour Front, which had won the general election of 1955. David Saul Marshall, who headed the Labour Front in 1955 and was chosen as Chief Minister, had since resigned in 1956. By 1959, the Labour Front was in turmoil, although they had been very successful at campaigning in 1955. Much of the issues resounded around the topic of independence as well as political issues such as the communist insurgency led by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) which had been causing the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960).

During the 1955 election, the PAP protested against the existence of appointed members as set forth by the Rendel Constitution, and become the main opposition party following the election, and the Singapore Progressive Party (SPP) which had been one of the most dominant parties in the 1948 election and the 1951 election had become increasingly displaced at this point. The desire for independence and self-government epitomised by the Malay term Merdeka, had started to become immediate. This was reflected when the cry of "We want Merdeka now!" was taken up by those demanding immediate independence. The SPP fell out of favour as it was perceived by much of the electorate by working for reform too slowly.

David Marshall was vocally anti-British and anti-colonialist, and the British found it difficult to come to an agreement or a compromise. Eventually after failing to reach any agreement about a definite plan for self-government he resigned in 1956, following a pledge that he would achieve self-government or resign. Lim Yew Hock, another Labour Front member, took his place. He pursued an aggressive anti-communist campaign and manage to convince the British to make a definite plan for self-government. The Constitution of Singapore was revised accordingly in 1958, replacing the Rendel Constitution with one that granted Singapore self-government and the ability for its own population to fully elect its Legislative Assembly.

However, Lim's tactics against the communists alienated a large part of the Singaporean Chinese electorate, the demographic targeted most during the anti-communist campaign. There were also allegations of civil rights violations as many activists were detained without trial with the justification of internal security and tear gas were used against demonstrating students from several Chinese schools, both anti-colonialist and anti-communist alike.

Results

The voter turnout for the election was 527,919 out of a total 586,098 voters, or 92.9% of the total eligible voters. This was a huge turnout, especially when compared to the 1955 general election in which only 158,075 of 300,199 voters turned out, or 52.7% of the total eligible voters. There were two historical attributions for this. One was the implementation of compulsory voting, the other the removal of suffrage restrictions that had previously limited voting rights to those born in Singapore, or those who had lived there for a certain amount of time.

Over 51 seats were available for contesting during the election, which was almost a 50% increase from the total seats at the 1955 general election, and more than double of the seats if only elected seats are considered. In contrast to the elections that would follow in the future after the 1963 general election, there were no walkovers.

Legacy

PAP supporters rally after their victory at the polls.

With the successful conclusion of the election, all the members of the Parliament were now elected, and thus theoretically achieved full consent of the governed. The PAP as ruling party was able to form a new government of Singapore on 3 June 1959 that was fully elected which could now adopt domestic policy without oversight from the colonial administration. The United Kingdom still however controlled the military forces, foreign affairs and had a joint responsibility in internal security under agreement. However, the year of the conclusion of the elections and the formation of the new government — 1959 — is generally the date specified by historians for the achievement of self-government for Singapore, even though the Constitution had been amended in 1958.

Before taking over the governance of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew secured the release of several PAP members, who were arrested under the Emergency Regulation in 1956 and 1957, including left-wing leader Lim Chin Siong. During the election campaign, Lee had advocated for their release as part of his election platform, and thus was able to mobilise the support of many trade union members.

After their release, Lim Chin Siong and his affiliates would later challenge Lee's leadership in the PAP, leading to the expulsion of most of the left-wing members from the PAP in 1961. The expelled members formed the Barisan Sosialis, and would contest the 1963 general elections against the PAP. Although having been crippled by Operation Coldstore, they put up a fight that to date, is the only election that threatened to remove the PAP from power while it was an existing ruling party. It however lost and went into a decline, affirming the PAP as ruling party.

Singaporean general election, 1963

The Singapore legislative assembly general election of 1963 was an election that took place in Singapore on 21 September 1963 following five days after the merger with Malaysia and therefore as an autonomous state of Malaysia. Based on results from a poll of Singapore citizens from their respective constituencies, the elections decided how to allocate the total of 51 seats for the Legislative Assembly of Singapore, the predecessor to the Parliament of Singapore, to nominated candidates.

The ruling People's Action Party kept its refreshed mandate as it won 37 out of the 51 seats, the Barisan Sosialis 13 and the United People's Party 1. The 1963 elections are also known for being the elections where the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the ruling party of the Central Government in Malaysia tried to oust the People's Action Party by sending in the UMNO-backed Singapore Alliance Party to contest the elections, violating previous agreement not to do so and a highlight in the relations between UMNO and the PAP.

It was the only election ever to be held in Singapore while Singapore was still a state of Malaysia.

Election background

The elections were called out of necessity to reform the government and allocate the mandate to the winner in accordance with the constitution especially after the change in Singapore's sovereignty after the merger had been taken place. Earlier, on August 31, 1963 Singapore had been declared independent with the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) declared as trustees until the merger would be complete. On 3 September 1963 Lee Kuan Yew, General Secretary of the PAP, dissolved the Parliament in accordance to procedure and called for elections to be held on 21 September.

The 1963 state elections were the toughest and most critical the PAP ever faced in its history. Firstly, the PAP had already suffered two by-election defeats which reduced the number of their held seats in 1959 from 43 to 39. When the PAP expelled the pro-communist faction from within its ranks in 1961, this meant that 13 seat-holders had left the PAP and formed the Barisan Sosialis, reducing the number of seats the PAP held to 26 - holding a majority by just one seat. As with the 1962 Merger Referendum of Singapore, the Barisian Sosialis enagaged in a heated media campaign to sway voters, again with scathing attacks made by both sides. However, the Barisan Sosialis had already suffered a major blow as seven months before many of its members, including the secretary general Lim Chin Siong had been arrested and held without trial under Operation Coldstore.

Voter results

The voter turnout on polling day was large - 587,330 voters out of a possible of 617,650 voters, meaning a turnout of 95.1%. The PAP contested every seat except one, with the Barisan Sosialis also not following far behind. The PAP won the majority of the constituencies electorally - and an extensive amount of voters cast votes for it in every constituency, however, the Barisan Sosialis was again not falling far behind. They failed to win most of the seats however, and this was also hampered by a lack of concentration of their supporters in the constituencies - this was reflected by the fact that they had won 193,301 votes, or 33.2% of the votes by popular vote in comparison to winning roughly 25.4% of the seats.

However, the PAP suffered a large dent in their mandate by popular vote in comparison to that of the 1959 general election - where they had won over 54% of the vote before, they now only had 272,924 votes, about 46.9% of the vote, although they had won roughly 71% of the seats. The United People's Party won 48,785 votes, or 8.4% of the votes.

It was because of this heated elections that the PAP did not appreciate UMNO's actions of backing the Singapore Alliance Party's attempts to oust them, especially when they had agreed not to compete with each other's elections, of state and Federal governments respectively. This contributed to the decline in PAP-UMNO relations. Nevertheless, the PAP obtained a fresh mandate, and the new Parliament, again backing the PAP, was formed soon after

Done by : Nicholas Lau