Singaporean general election, 1955

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2 April 1955

1959 →

25 (of the 32) seats to the Legislative Assembly

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	David Marshall	Tan Chye Cheng	Lee Kuan Yew
Party	LF	PP	PAP
Leader's seat	Cairnhill	Cairnhill (defeated)	Tanjong Pagar
Last election	Did not contest	6 seats, 45.4%	Did not contest
Seats won	10	4	3
Seat change	New	2	New
Popular vote	42,300	38,695	13,634
Percentage	27.1%	24.8%	8.7
Swing	New	20.6%	New

Chief Minister before election

Newly created

Resulting Chief Minister

David Marshall
LF

Newly created

David Marshall
LF

General elections were held in Singapore on 2 April 1955 to elect the 25 elected seats in the Legislative Assembly. Nomination day was on 28 February 1955.

Following the promulgation of the Rendel Constitution, the 1955 elections were the first occasion on which a majority of the seats were to be elected rather than be appointed by the colonial authorities. The new constitution was written after recommendations by a committee to grant local citizens more autonomy, headed by George Rendel, were passed.

According to the new Constitution, locals would share executive power with the colonial authorities and there would be a Chief Minister among elected legislators. The number of elected seats was increased to 25, with the British government appointing the remaining seven members.

The Governor of Singapore and Colonial Secretary posts were replaced by a Chief Secretary, who inherited the power to appoint four nominated Assembly Members. Also scrapped were the seats of the Solicitor-General, two directors, two ex-officios, the three commercial organisations and the City Council representative.

For the first time, political parties were permitted to adopt a standard party symbol for all their candidates and independents to select theirs instead of balloting for them. The Progressive Party, representing the English-speaking bourgeois and Democratic Party fielded the largest number of candidates each. The Malay Union, the United Malays National Organisation and the Malayan Chinese Association ran together as the Singapore Alliance after leaving the three-party Labour Front (LF) alliance, which had consolidated into a single party.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party was a spent force as both AMs had left the party, with one moving to LF and one going independent. A seat was earlier vacated due to the demise of PP's popular C. J. P. Paglar, who died from a stroke.

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