By election was held on 31 October 1981 while the nomination day was held on 21 October 1981 because the original MP of Anson constituency C. V. Devan Nair had been nominated as the third President of Singapore, succeeding Benjamin Henry Sheares who had died on 12 May 1981.
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The election deposit was stated at $1500.
This is one of the most significant elections in Singapore's political history because it was the first opposition victory after Barisan Sosialis had left the parliament in 1966 on the grounds of Singapore's independence was "phony". It is also the third by election to be held on this constituency and there are three candidates contested in this seat, namely Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, Pang Kim Hin and Harbans Singh after Chiam See Tong had decided to withdraw at the last minute in the name of "opposition unity".
It was also the Workers' Party's return to the legislature since 20 years ago in 1961 and in the same seat David Marshall, then WP chairman, held.
Jeyaretnam would successfully retain his seat with an larger vote majority of 2,376 in the 1984 elections, or 56.8% of votes while Chiam See Tong gained the seat of Potong Pasir from the PAP as the Singapore Democratic Party candidate on an swing of 19.3 percent. He would go on to represent the seat for a further 6 terms until the 2011 general election and become Singapore's longest-serving opposition MP.
However, Jeyaretnam was convicted for allegedly misreporting his party accounts and vacated the seat in 1986. Therefore, the constituency was abolished subsequently and split into mainly nearby Tanjong Pagar and Kreta Ayer constituency as well as a significant of the portion was used to form the then Tiong Bahru GRC in 1988 elections, which in turn absorbed the Tanjong Pagar constituency in 1991 elections that forms the present day Tanjong Pagar GRC. It has an overall impact of Singapore's political landscape as since then, People's Action Party had failed to garnered all seats in parliament.
| By-election 1981: Anson | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| WP | Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam | 7,012 | 51.9 | +51.9 | |
| PAP | Pang Kim Hin | 6,359 | 47.1 | -37.0 | |
| United People's Front | Harbans Singh | 131 | 1.0 | -14.9 | |
| Majority | 653 | 4.8 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 13,746 | 94.7 | +0.3 | ||
| WP gain from PAP | Swing | N/A | |||
Notes: As Habans Singh for United People's Front had failed to garner the minimum 12.5% (one-eighth) of the votes, his election deposit was forfeited.
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