1963 Elections of Singapore
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All 51 seats to the Legislative Assembly 26 seats needed for a majority |
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| Turnout | 587,433 (95.1%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1General elections were held in Singapore on 21 September 1963, five days after the merger with Malaysia. The elections saw an attempt by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the ruling party 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. However, the result was a victory for the PAP, which won 37 of the 51 seats in the Singapore Legislative Assembly.
They were the only elections to be held in Singapore as a state of Malaysia; following the independence in 1965, the Legislative Assembly elected in 1963 became the first Parliament, and its members became Members of Parliament.
Although the PAP had won 43 seats in the 1959 elections, they had been reduced to 39 seats by 1961 following two by-election defeats and two defections to the new United People's Party. The party also expelled 13 of its Assembly Members a week after they voted against the PAP government in a no-confidence motion on 20 July 1961; the dissidents subsequently formed a new party, the Barisan Sosialis (BS), which PAP alleged was a communist front. The combination of by-election defeats, defections and expulsions reduced the PAP to 26 seats and gave the opposition 25, leaving PAP with a one-seat majority.
On 3 July 1962, while the integration 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 fold, giving it back its one-seat majority. Another five days later, minister Ahmad Ibrahim died from liver cancer, leaving both sides with 25 seats 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 a full election to gain a fresh mandate. If the government failed to be re-elected, the Malaysia Federal government could deal with a new pro-communist ruling party in Singapore.
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