General elections were held in Singapore on 30 May 1959. They were held under the new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

and were the first in which all 51 seats in the Legislative Assembly were filled by election. This was the first election victory for the

People's Action Party The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...

(PAP), as they won a landslide victory with 43 seats, and the party has remained in power ever since these elections.

Background

Political developments

David Marshall, the politician who led the ruling

Labour Front The Labour Front is a defunct political party in Singapore that operated from 1955 to 1960. History The Labour Front was founded to contest the 1955 legislative elections by David Saul Marshall, Singapore's first chief minister and Lim Yew Ho ...

after winning the previous general election in 1955, was vocally anti-British and anti-colonialist, and the British found it difficult to come to an agreement or a compromise about a plan for self-government; Marshall resigned from the party a year later, pledging that he would either achieve self-government or to resign. In his place,

Lim Yew Hock Lim Yew Hock ( zh, c=林有福, p=Lín Yǒufú; 15 October 1914 – 30 November 1984) was a Malaysiananti-communist campaign and manage to convince the British to make a definite plan for self-government. By the time of the 1959 elections the Labour Front was in turmoil; Lim's strategy against the communists alienated a large part of the

Chinese Singaporean Chinese Singaporeans () are Singaporeans of Chinese descent. Chinese Singaporeans constitute 75.9% of the Singaporean citizen population according to the official census, making them the largest ethnic group among them. As early as the 10th ...

electorate, which was the demographic targeted most during the anti-communist campaign. Lim's campaign also saw allegations of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

violations as many activists were detained without trial with the justification of

internal security Internal security is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other self-governing territories, generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats. Responsibility for internal secu ...

and tear gas were used against demonstrating students during the 1956

Chinese middle schools riots The Chinese middle schools riots were a series of riots that broke out in the Chinese Singaporean community in 1956, resulting in 13 people killed and more than 120 injured. Overview In 1956, after Lim Yew Hock replaced David Marshall as Chi ...

which were both anti-colonialist and anti-communist alike.

Constitutional reform

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. Previously under the Rendel Constitution, drawn up in 1955 by a commission led by

George William Rendel Sir George William Rendel (23 February 1889 – 6 May 1979) was a British diplomat.Eid Al Yahya, ''Travellers in Arabia'', (Stacey International, 2006). Early years Rendel, the son of the engineer George Wightwick Rendel was educated at Down ...

, the Legislative Assembly and its leaders could not fully be determined by the population; the British government appointed seven of the 32 members, with the remaining 25 seats elected by the public, albeit with

limited suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

. This itself was an improvement from the pre-1955 Legislative Council, electing nine members to the council. This election was the first election after its full internal

self-government __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...

granted by the British authorities; Singapore was now a recognised

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

, but was yet to gain full independence since the British still have external affairs such as the military and foreign relations. Due to the removal of suffrage restrictions, voting was implemented to be compulsory for the first time, and had done so in every election since 1959.

Parties

Chief Minister

Lim Yew Hock Lim Yew Hock ( zh, c=林有福, p=Lín Yǒufú; 15 October 1914 – 30 November 1984) was a MalaysianSingapore People's Alliance The Singapore People's Alliance was a political coalition in Singapore founded in 1958, comprising the Labour Front and Liberal Socialist Party. It has never won any seats in the Parliament of Singapore. However, the party did win 4 seats to ...

on 10 November 1958, which consist of previously-elected Labour Front assembly members who were defected from Labour Front. SPA also invited members of Liberal Socialists and Workers' Party. SPA was formed to present a fresh image to voters in the lead up for the 1959 election, and ran on secure full employment and fair working conditions for workers, and achieving independence of Singapore through a merger with Malaya. The tenure of Lim Yew Hock as Chief Minister, who succeeded Labour Front's David Marshall after his resignation in 1956, saw scant improvement to living conditions and unpopular tough measures on protesting unions. Lim's government also saw corruption during his tenure, and until the term expiry for Labour Front, all ten elected Assemblymen had resigned from the party due to credibility. These resignations saw the formation of three parties; in 1957, David Marshall founded the Workers' Party (one of the successful opposition parties of Singapore); in 1958, the

Singapore People's Alliance The Singapore People's Alliance was a political coalition in Singapore founded in 1958, comprising the Labour Front and Liberal Socialist Party. It has never won any seats in the Parliament of Singapore. However, the party did win 4 seats to ...

(founded by Lim) and in 1959, the Citizens' Party. SPA attempted to fight the record of the PAP administration in the

City Council of Singapore The City Council of Singapore was the administrative council of the City of Singapore responsible for the provision of water, electricity, gas, roads and bridges and street lighting. It was dissolved in 1959 when Singapore attained self-governanc ...

with charges of corruptly appointing its supporters to fill up posts in the City Council, as well as raising concerns over the tenders of some Council contracts. The SPA even went as far as setting up a Commission of Inquiry in April 1959 to investigate whether there had been "irregularities or improprieties" in the working of the City Council. The inquiry, however, failed to reveal anything suspicious against the City Council and the hearings were adjourned indefinitely. A new Party, Liberal Socialist Party (LSP) was formed by a merger of the

Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...

and the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. The Progressive Party which had won the 1948 and 1951 elections (but lost to Labour Front in the 1955 elections) had already fallen out of favour as it was perceived by much of the electorate by working for reform too slowly. The Alliance was a coalition comprising the Singapore branch of three political parties from Malaya, namely the

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation ( Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its ...

(UMNO), the

Malayan Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA; zh, 马来西亚华人公会; ; ta, மலேசிய சீனர் சங்கம், initially known as the Malayan Chinese Association) is a uni-racial political party in Malaysia that seeks to ...

(MCA) and the

Malayan Indian Congress The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC; ta, மலேசிய இந்திய காங்கிரஸ், Malēciya Intiya Kāṅkiras; formerly known as Malayan Indian Congress) is a Malaysian political party. It is one of the founding membe ...

(MIC), which they ran on raising the standards of living as well as to strengthen economic ties between Singapore and Malaya. As their parent parties were the ruling coalition in Malaya under

Tunku Abdul Rahman Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah ( ms, ‏تونكو عبد الرحمن ڤوترا الحاج ابن سلطان عبد الحميد حليم شاه, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; 8 Febru ...

, the Alliance promised voters that it could work for an early merger if voted into power as they knew "exactly" what their Malayan counterparts wanted. The

Malay Union The Malay Union ( ms, Kesatuan Melayu) was a political party in Singapore. History The party was established on 14 May 1926 as a religious and cultural organisations for the Malay community.People's Action Party The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...

, announced to contest 51 seats in the election; they released their election manifesto entitled The Tasks Ahead, and outlined the party's five-year plan to address acute problems faced by Singapore. It called for a series of policies and programmes such as the provision of low-cost housing, the strengthening of education, as well as the development of industries thus improving employment opportunities for the local population. These were in addition to the goal of attaining independence for Singapore through a merger with the Federation of Malaya. The PAP campaigned against corruption under the Lim Yew Hock government, and all party members and candidates wore a distinctive outfit of white shirts and pants (which is still the uniform of PAP candidates as of today) to represent "cleanliness" in government. SPA attempted to portray the PAP as a party being controlled by the communists, and such claims were repeated by Liberal Socialists and UMNO. Lee Kuan Yew brushed off the claims, describing them as "silly", "blabbering" and "lies".

Timeline

Changes to electoral boundaries

The 51 seats of the Legislative Assembly were elected from

single-member constituencies A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vot ...

, with an increase of 26 seats in this election. The changes among the constituencies were:

Campaign

Many of the campaign issues surrounded the topic of government corruption and independence of Singapore, as well as political issues such as the communist

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...

led by the

Malayan Communist Party The Malayan Communist Party (MCP), officially the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), was a Marxist–Leninist and anti-imperialist communist party which was active in British Malaya and later, the modern states of Malaysia and Singapore from ...

(MCP), which had been causing the Malayan Emergency. The desire for independence and self-government epitomised by the Malay term '' Merdeka'' (which translates to Independence or Free), had started to become immediate. This was reflected when the cry of ''"We want Merdeka now!"'' was taken up by those demanding immediate independence. Prior to the polling day, the press had predicted that the presence of multi-cornered fights would only split the anti-PAP vote, raising chances of a PAP victory.

Chew Swee Kee Chew Swee Kee ( zh, c=周瑞麒, p=Zhōu Ruìqí; 15 May 1918 December 1985) was a Singaporean politician. A member of the political party, the Labour Front, Chew served as Minister of Education from 1955 to 1959. Early life Chew was born 15 May ...
affair

The Chew Swee Kee affair was also a notable issue raised in the May 1959 elections. In February 1959, PAP charged the incumbent SPA government with receiving political funds from the United States government. Investigations by a Commission of Inquiry later revealed that Chew Swee Kee, who was then Education Minister, had converted the alleged funds for his own use. The claim has it that Chew accepted around $700,000 to $800,000 from an unrevealed donor in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

as a "political gift". Chew promptly stepped down from his post on 4 March 1959. The incident is credited for causing the SPA's downfall. The revelation had a devastating effect on the image of SPA as the party was seen to be serving a Western power, betraying Singapore's anti-colonial movement.

Results

The result was a landslide win for the PAP, with the SPA lost 35 of the 39 contested constituencies and only four members represented the new Assembly. The Labour Front saw a negative swing of about 27% and failed to win any seats. The right-wing coalition party, the Liberal Socialist Party (which formed by a merger of the

and

) saw a disastrous performance with all of the 32 candidates were defeated, among them 20 candidates who lost their election deposits. A total of 73 candidates lost their $500 election deposit. PAP candidate Wong Soon Fong was the best performing candidate in this election in percentage terms, polling 77.66% while LSP candidate Lillian Tan was the worst performing candidate polling 0.82%. In absolute numbers, PAP's

Goh Keng Swee Goh Keng Swee (; 6 October 1918 – 14 May 2010), born Robert Goh Keng Swee, was a Singaporean politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore between 1973 and 1985. Goh is widely recognised as one of the founding fathers of Singa ...

was the best performing candidate polling 9,313 votes while LSP's Lillian Tan was the worst performing candidate polling 64 votes. The election, which saw implementations of compulsory voting and the removal of suffrage restrictions, saw a huge increase in

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

, with 90.07% of the voters (or 527,919 of the 586,098 registered voters), as compared to 52.66% from the previous election.

By constituency

Aftermath

The PAP was able to form a new government which could now adopt

domestic policy Domestic policy is a type of public policy overseeing administrative decisions that are directly related to all issues and activity within a state's borders. It differs from foreign policy, which refers to the ways a government advances its inter ...

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, historians saw 1959 as the year Singapore achieved self-governance as a result of the new government, even though the Constitution had been amended in 1958. On the afternoon of 5 June, Lee Kuan Yew was sworn in as the first

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

at City Hall by Yang di Pertuan Negara William Goode along with members of his cabinet. Before taking over, Lee pardoned several PAP members, who had been arrested under the

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

Regulation in 1956 and 1957, including left-wing leader

Lim Chin Siong Lim Chin Siong (; 28 February 1933 – 5 February 1996) was a Singaporean politician and Trade union, union leader active in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the founders of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), which has ...

. During the election campaign, Lee had called for pardon as part of his election platform, causing an increase of morale of many trade union members. After their release, Lim 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 would then form the

Barisan Sosialis Barisan Sosialis ( eng, Socialist Front) was a political party in Singapore. It was formed on 29 July 1961 and officially registered on 13 August 1961 by left-wing members of the People's Action Party (PAP) who had been expelled from the PAP. ...

, and posed a strong challenge against the PAP on the next election in 1963; although being crippled by

Operation Coldstore Operation Coldstore was the code name for a covert security operation executed in Singapore on 2 February 1963 which led to the arrest of 113 people, who were detained without trial pursuant to the Preservation of Public Service Security Ordinan ...

, they came closer to removing the PAP from power than any other party to date.

By-elections

Two by-elections, both held in 1961, occurred during the term in Parliament. Former PAP minister

Ong Eng Guan Ong Eng Guan (; 1925–2008) was a Singaporean politician who served as Minister for National Development between 1959 and 1960. An anti-communist, Ong was a Chinese-educated orator who became popular among the Chinese community in Singapore. He ...

was re-elected in Hong Lim running as an independent after leaving the PAP, whilst David Marshall was elected in

Anson Anson may refer to: People * Anson (name), a give name and surname ** Anson family, a British aristocratic family with the surname Place names ;United States * Anson, Indiana * Anson, Kansas * Anson, Maine ** Anson (CDP), Maine * Anson, Missour ...

after the death of PAP MP Baharuddin Mohammed Ariff.

References

Bibliography

External links

General Elections 1959
Singapore Elections {{Singaporean elections General elections in Singapore

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

1959 in Singapore