Singaporean general election, 1948
Encyclopedia
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.
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...
to be held 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...
, taking place on 21 March 1948 when six of the 22 seats on the Legislative Council
Legislative Council of Singapore
The Legislative Council of Singapore was a Legislative Council in Singapore that assisted the Governor in making laws in Singapore. It officially came into existence in 1946, when the Repeal Act abolished the Straits Settlements, and Singapore became a Crown Colony on its own that would need its...
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.
Summary
| Party | Seats | Popular votes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contested | Won | # | % | ||
| Progressive Party Progressive Party (Singapore) The Singapore Progressive Party , or just, the Progressive Party is a now defunct political party that was formed on August 25, 1947. It won the Legislative Assembly general elections in 1948 by winning half of the contested seats in the Legislative Assembly, 3 out of 6... |
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 Progressive Party (Singapore) The Singapore Progressive Party , or just, the Progressive Party is a now defunct political party that was formed on August 25, 1947. It won the Legislative Assembly general elections in 1948 by winning half of the contested seats in the Legislative Assembly, 3 out of 6... |
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 John Laycock Christopher John Laycock, was a British lawyer, the founder of one of Singapore's earliest law firms, Laycock and Ong.It was in this firm that the man who would subsequently become Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, began his career as a lawyer in 1949 after graduating from Cambridge... |
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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||