Singapore general election, 1963
Encyclopedia
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 the composition 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
was re-elected to a second term 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.
after the merger with the Malayisan Federation.
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
, the Prime Minister, dissolved the Parliament in accordance to procedure on 3 September, and called for elections to be held on 21 September.
This election, held in the midst of Singapore's merger with Malaysia, is remembered as PAP's most hard-fought election ever in history. With 39 seats after two by-election defeats and two defections to UPP, PAP expelled 13 of its Assembly Members from the party a week after they mutinied in a no-confidence motion on 20 July 1961 and was left hanging onto a slim one-seat majority- with 26 PAP MPs to the opposition's 25. The dissidents formed a new party, the Barisan Sosialis
(BS), which PAP alleged was a communist front.
On 3 July 1962, while the National Referendum debate was in procession, PAP legislator Ho Puay Choo resigned, leaving it one seat short against the opposition. She joined the BS on 11 August 1962 but five days later, the United People's Party's legislator S. V. Lingam returned to PAP's fold and it regained a one-seat majority. Another five days later, minister Ahmad Ibrahim died from liver cancer, leaving a 25 to 25 stand-off in the legislature. Barisan planned to field its iconic leader, Lim Chin Siong
, in the vacated seat but Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew decided against holding a by-election, choosing instead to call an election to court a fresh mandate. If the government failed to be reelected, the Malaysia Federal government could deal with a new pro-communist ruling party in Singapore.
Before that, the PAP government launched Operation Coldstore on 2 February 1963 and detained several BS leaders, including Lim. Sole Workers' Party legislator David Saul Marshall
resigned from the party he founded and became the only independent. Once again, PAP fielded a full slate but faced intensive challenges from three components that did nearly the same. Barisan and its partner, Pakatan Rakyat fielded candidates in all except two seats, while UPP had an unusual large number of candidates and SA, a formalised umbrella of the Singapore Alliance Party
, the Malayan UMNO, the Malayan Chinese Association and Malayan Indian Congress, with support of Malaysia's ruling Alliance Party coalition was established but its leader, former Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock
, was not in the running.
According to the book Men in White (2009) which provided insight into the PAP's history and years in power, PAP officials warned on the final night of campaigning that if BS won, Malaysia would send troops into Singapore and invoke emergency powers in place of the incoming government. This was said to have accounted for the eventual victory of the PAP the following day.
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 all 51 seats available for election, with the Barisan Sosialis contesting 46. In the end, PAP managed to eke out an election victory with a two-thirds majority, 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 the split in the anti-PAP vote
in individual 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, or a majority of 23 over other parties in the new House. The United People's Party won 48,785 votes, or 8.4% of the votes.
All except in three constituencies saw a total of 92 candidates forfeit their deposits, in the biggest election "slaughter" ever.
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.
Thereafter, to discourage rampant defections, the PAP government passed a law stipulating that legislators who resign or are expelled from the parties they were elected under would lose their seats.
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
that took place in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
on 21 September 1963 following five days after the merger with Malaysia
Singapore in Malaysia
On 16 September 1963, which was also Lee Kuan Yew's 40th birthday, Singapore merged with the Federation of Malaya alongside Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia...
and therefore as an autonomous state
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
of Malaysia. Based on results from a poll of Singapore citizens from their respective constituencies, the elections decided the composition of 51 seats for the Legislative Assembly of Singapore
Legislative Assembly of Singapore
The Legislative Assembly of Singapore was the legislature of the government of Singapore from 1955 to 1965 and the predecessor of the Parliament of Singapore. The Rendel Constitution, proposed in 1953, sought to give the local population more self-governance as the Merdeka independence movement grew...
, the predecessor to the Parliament of Singapore
Parliament of Singapore
The Parliament of the Republic of Singapore and the President jointly make up the legislature of Singapore. Parliament is unicameral and is made up of Members of Parliament who are elected, as well as Non-constituency Members of Parliament and Nominated Members of Parliament who are appointed...
, to nominated candidates.
The ruling People's Action Party
People's Action Party
The People's Action Party is the leading political party in Singapore. It has been the city-state's ruling political party since 1959....
was re-elected to a second term as it won 37 out of the 51 seats, the Barisan Sosialis
Barisan Sosialis
The Barisan Sosialis is a former Singaporean left-wing political party formed in 1961, by left-wing members of the People's Action Party and led by Dr Lee Siew Choh and Lim Chin Siong.-Formation:...
13 and the United People's Party
United People's Party
The United People's Party was a Singapore party formed by the former People's Action Party leader Ong Eng Guan in 1961. After it won a seat , in the 1963 General Elections, the party's existence was in doubt as Singapore was knocked out of the Malaysian federation by Malaysia...
1. The 1963 elections are also known for being the elections where the United Malays National Organisation
United Malays National Organisation
The United Malays National Organisation, is Malaysia's largest political party; a founding member of the National Front coalition, which has played a dominant role in Malaysian politics since independence....
(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
Singapore Alliance Party
The Singapore Alliance Party, or sometimes known as just Singapore Alliance, was a coalition of political parties that contested several elections in Singapore, notably the 1955 Elections of Singapore and the 1963 Elections of Singapore that was heavily backed by the local chapter of the United...
to contest the elections, violating previous agreement not to do so and a highlight in the relations between UMNO and the PAP
PAP-UMNO relations
The sometimes turbulent relationship between the People's Action Party and United Malays National Organisation , which were, and still are, the ruling parties respectively of Singapore and Malaysia, has affected the recent history of both states.-Origins:Both parties have common roots, being...
.
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 sovereigntySovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
after the merger with the Malayisan Federation.
Earlier, on August 31, 1963 Singapore had been declared independent with the ruling People's Action Party
People's Action Party
The People's Action Party is the leading political party in Singapore. It has been the city-state's ruling political party since 1959....
(PAP) declared as trustees until the merger would be complete. On 3 September 1963 Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
, the Prime Minister, dissolved the Parliament in accordance to procedure on 3 September, and called for elections to be held on 21 September.
This election, held in the midst of Singapore's merger with Malaysia, is remembered as PAP's most hard-fought election ever in history. With 39 seats after two by-election defeats and two defections to UPP, PAP expelled 13 of its Assembly Members from the party a week after they mutinied in a no-confidence motion on 20 July 1961 and was left hanging onto a slim one-seat majority- with 26 PAP MPs to the opposition's 25. The dissidents formed a new party, the Barisan Sosialis
Barisan Sosialis
The Barisan Sosialis is a former Singaporean left-wing political party formed in 1961, by left-wing members of the People's Action Party and led by Dr Lee Siew Choh and Lim Chin Siong.-Formation:...
(BS), which PAP alleged was a communist front.
On 3 July 1962, while the National Referendum debate was in procession, PAP legislator Ho Puay Choo resigned, leaving it one seat short against the opposition. She joined the BS on 11 August 1962 but five days later, the United People's Party's legislator S. V. Lingam returned to PAP's fold and it regained a one-seat majority. Another five days later, minister Ahmad Ibrahim died from liver cancer, leaving a 25 to 25 stand-off in the legislature. Barisan planned to field its iconic leader, Lim Chin Siong
Lim Chin Siong
Lim Chin Siong was an influential leftwing politician and trade union leader in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life:Born in Telok Ayer Street, Lim studied first in Johor, before entering Singapore’s Catholic High School and Chinese High School in 1949 and 1950 respectively...
, in the vacated seat but Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew decided against holding a by-election, choosing instead to call an election to court a fresh mandate. If the government failed to be reelected, the Malaysia Federal government could deal with a new pro-communist ruling party in Singapore.
Before that, the PAP government launched Operation Coldstore on 2 February 1963 and detained several BS leaders, including Lim. Sole Workers' Party legislator David Saul Marshall
David Saul Marshall
David Saul Marshall was the leader of the Singapore Labour Front and became the first Chief Minister of Singapore in 1955....
resigned from the party he founded and became the only independent. Once again, PAP fielded a full slate but faced intensive challenges from three components that did nearly the same. Barisan and its partner, Pakatan Rakyat fielded candidates in all except two seats, while UPP had an unusual large number of candidates and SA, a formalised umbrella of the Singapore Alliance Party
Singapore Alliance Party
The Singapore Alliance Party, or sometimes known as just Singapore Alliance, was a coalition of political parties that contested several elections in Singapore, notably the 1955 Elections of Singapore and the 1963 Elections of Singapore that was heavily backed by the local chapter of the United...
, the Malayan UMNO, the Malayan Chinese Association and Malayan Indian Congress, with support of Malaysia's ruling Alliance Party coalition was established but its leader, former Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock
Lim Yew Hock
Lim Yew Hock , later renamed Haji Omar Lim Yew Hock, was Singapore’s second Chief Minister from 1956 to 1959. He is known for suppressing the communist movements and leading the all-party delegation that won internal self-government for Singapore....
, was not in the running.
According to the book Men in White (2009) which provided insight into the PAP's history and years in power, PAP officials warned on the final night of campaigning that if BS won, Malaysia would send troops into Singapore and invoke emergency powers in place of the incoming government. This was said to have accounted for the eventual victory of the PAP the following day.
Voter results
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| People's Action Party People's Action Party The People's Action Party is the leading political party in Singapore. It has been the city-state's ruling political party since 1959.... |
272,924 | 46.9 | 37 | |
| Barisan Sosialis Barisan Sosialis The Barisan Sosialis is a former Singaporean left-wing political party formed in 1961, by left-wing members of the People's Action Party and led by Dr Lee Siew Choh and Lim Chin Siong.-Formation:... |
193,301 | 33.2 | 13 | |
| Singapore Alliance | 48,967 | 8.4 | 0 | |
| United People's Party | 48,785 | 8.4 | 1 | |
| Partai Rakyat | 8,259 | 1.4 | 0 | |
| Pan-Malayan Malaysian Party | 1,545 | 0.3 | 0 | |
| United Democratic Party | 760 | 0.1 | 0 | |
| Workers' Party Workers' Party of Singapore The Workers' Party of Singapore is a centre-left opposition political party in Singapore. The party currently has six elected seats in Parliament, with the party's Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, Chairman Sylvia Lim, Chen Show Mao, Muhamad Faisal Manap and Pritam Singh serving as Members of... |
286 | 0.1 | 0 | |
| Independents | 6,788 | 1.2 | 0 | |
| Invalid/blank votes | 5,818 | |||
| Turnout | 587,433 | 95.1 | 51 | - |
| Electorate | 617,450 | |||
| Source: Singapore Elections | ||||
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 all 51 seats available for election, with the Barisan Sosialis contesting 46. In the end, PAP managed to eke out an election victory with a two-thirds majority, 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 the split in the anti-PAP vote
Vote splitting
Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate....
in individual 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
Singapore general election, 1959
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...
- 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, or a majority of 23 over other parties in the new House. The United People's Party won 48,785 votes, or 8.4% of the votes.
All except in three constituencies saw a total of 92 candidates forfeit their deposits, in the biggest election "slaughter" ever.
It was because of this heated elections that the PAP did not appreciate UMNO's actions of backing the Singapore Alliance Party
Singapore Alliance Party
The Singapore Alliance Party, or sometimes known as just Singapore Alliance, was a coalition of political parties that contested several elections in Singapore, notably the 1955 Elections of Singapore and the 1963 Elections of Singapore that was heavily backed by the local chapter of the United...
'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
PAP-UMNO relations
The sometimes turbulent relationship between the People's Action Party and United Malays National Organisation , which were, and still are, the ruling parties respectively of Singapore and Malaysia, has affected the recent history of both states.-Origins:Both parties have common roots, being...
. Nevertheless, the PAP obtained a fresh mandate, and the new Parliament, again backing the PAP, was formed soon after.
Thereafter, to discourage rampant defections, the PAP government passed a law stipulating that legislators who resign or are expelled from the parties they were elected under would lose their seats.
By-elections
During the term of the Assembly there were five by-elections:- Singapore by-election, 1965Singaporean by-election, 1965-Background:Merely a month before Singapore's separation from Malaysia and independence, UPP chief and sole Assembly Member Ong Eng Guan resigned his seat and retired from politics. This last Legislative Assembly election became a straight fight between Singapore's two main parties - the People's...
- Singapore by-election, 1966 (January, March & November)Singaporean by-election, 1966-Background:There were 3 By-elections held within 1966, with the first triggered just 4 months after separation from Malaysia on 8 December 1965. Lim Huan Boon from Barisan Sosialis , who started the trigger of the BS boycott of Parliament because they claimed that Singapore's independence was...
- Singapore by-election, 1967Singaporean by-election, 1967The Singaporean by-election of 1967 was triggered by the final batch of mass resignations from Barisan Sosialis 's elected Members of Parliament who heeded to Lim Huan Boon's call on the grounds that Singapore's independence was "phony" because no discussion of Singapore's separation matter was...