Singapore general election, 1963

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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.

1 Election background
2 Voter results
3 By-elections
4 References

[edit] 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.

[edit] Voter results

Main article: Singapore general election, 1963 results

The voter turnout on polling day was large - 527,919 voters out of a possible of 586,098 voters, meaning a turnout of 92.9%. 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.