Singaporean general election, 1948

Singaporean general election, 1948

21 March 1948
→ 1951

6 (of the 22) seats to the Legislative Council
Turnout 63.1%
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Independents Tan Chye Ching
Party Independent PP
Leader's seat Rural East, Rural West, Municipal North-East Municipal North-East
Seats won 3 3
Popular vote 11,997 11,754
Percentage 50.5% 49.5%

Election Results Map
Singapore

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The Legislative Council General Elections was the first election to be held in Singapore, taking place on 21 March 1948 when six of the 22 seats on the Legislative Council were open for popular voting, albeit only for British subjects. The election was announced on 1 February, and nominations were due by 15 February. The campaign period lasted for 31 days. Only six out of 22 were seats opened to the electorate and another three would be nominated by the three commercial organisations, namely the Singapore Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Indian Chamber of Commerce. The British colonial government appointed the remaining 13 seats, which were the posts of Governor, Colonial Secretary, Financial Secretary, Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, two Directors, two Ex-Officio Commissioners and four Non-Officio ones. Two constituencies had two seats each while two others had one. Parties had no fixed standard symbol and candidates had to ballot for one offered by the elections office. The Progressive Party was the only contesting party. Voting was not compulsory and a privilege to only "British subjects", constituting about 2% of Singapore's population of over 940,000 residents.

Calls by various organisations to boycott the election led to a voter turnout of 63.1% with 25,072 votes cast.

Contents

Election results

Summary

Party Seats Popular votes
Contested Won # % +/-
Progressive Party 5 3 11,754 49.5 NA
Independents 10 3 11,997 50.5 NA

Full results

Constituency Electorate Turnout Spoilt
votes
Winning margin Parties
Progressive Party Independent
Votes % Candidate Votes % Candidate Votes %
Municipal North-East
(two seats)
8691 5796 660 1050
(1st seat)
599
(2nd seat)
22.5
(1st seat)
14.8
(2nd seat)
John Laycock 2221 26.6 Mohamed Javad Namazie 2672 34.3
Lim Chuan Geok 892 8.2 M. K. Chidambram 1622 11.8
  Charles Joseph Pemberton Paglar 1420 11.1
Richard Lim C. H 944 4.6
Valiya Purayil Abdullah 1161 9.9
Municipal South-West
(two seats)
8838 5150 547 2553
(1st seat)
2484
(2nd seat)
26.2
(1st seat)
25.5
(2nd seat)
Tan Chye Ching 4125 42.3 Mirza Bin Abdul Majid 1572 16.1
Nazir Bin Abdul Mallal 4056 41.6  
Rural East 2092 1144 39 109 9.8   Sardon Bin Haji Zubir 607 54.9
Cheong Hock Chye 498 45.1
Rural West 2774 2036 75 461 23.5 Arumugan Ponnu Rajah 460 23.5 S. C. Goho 981 50.0
  Pillai Malathi 520 26.5

References

External links