1948 Singaporean general election

General elections were held for the first time in Singapore on 20 March 1948,[1] when six of the 22 seats on the Legislative Council became directly-elected. Voting was not compulsory and was restricted to British subjects, who constituted around 2% of the 940,000 population. Although various organisations called for a boycott of the elections, voter turnout was 63.1%.

1948 Singaporean general election

20 March 1948
6 (of the 22) seats to the Legislative Council
Turnout	63.1%
Leader – Tan Chye Cheng Party Independent PP Leader since 1945 Leader's seat – Municipal South-West Seats won 3 3 Popular vote 11,997 11,754 Percentage 50.5% 49.5%
Results by constituency

The Progressive Party (PP) was the only contesting party, winning three of the six elected seats.

Background

The election was announced on 1 February, and nominations were due by 15 February. The campaign period lasted for 31 days.

Electoral system

Of the 22 seats in the Legislative Council, six were elected, three nominated by commercial organisations (the Singapore Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Indian Chamber of Commerce), and thirteen appointed by the British authorities; these included the Governor, Colonial Secretary, Financial Secretary, Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, two Directors, two ex officio Commissioners and four non-officio ones.

The six elected seats were elected from four constituencies; two two-seat constituencies and two single-member constituencies. Parties had no fixed standard symbol and candidates had to ballot for one offered by the elections office.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Progressive Party	11,754	49.5	3
	Independents	11,997	50.5	3
Invalid/blank votes		1,321	–	–
Total		25,072	100	6
Total ballots cast		14,126	100
Registered voters/turnout		22,334	63.2
Source: Singapore Elections

By constituency

Constituency	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	%	Party		Candidate	Votes	%
Municipal North-East	2	8,668	5,796	66.9		Independent	Mohamed Javad Namazie	2,672	24.4
						Progressive Party	Christopher John Laycock	2,221	20.3
						Independent	M. K. Chidambaram	1,622	14.8
						Independent	Charles Joseph Pemberton Paglar	1,420	13.0
						Independent	Richard Lim Chuan Hoe	1,161	10.6
						Independent	Valiya Purayil Abdullah	944	8.6
						Progressive Party	Lim Chuan Geok	892	8.2
Municipal South-West	2	8,800	5,150	58.5		Progressive Party	Tan Chye Cheng	4,125	42.3
						Progressive Party	Nazir Ahmad Mallal	4,056	41.6
						Independent	Mirza Abdul Majid	1,572	16.1
Rural East	1	2,092	1,144	54.7		Independent	Sardon bin Jubir	607	54.9
						Independent	Cheong Hock Chye	498	45.1
Rural West	1	2,774	2,774	73.4		Independent	Srish Chandra Goho	981	50.0
						Independent	Malathi Pillai	520	26.5
						Progressive Party	Arumugam Ponnu Rajah	460	23.5
Singapore Chamber of Commerce	1	75	No election			Singapore Chamber of Commerce	Ewen MacGregor Field Fergusson	Uncontested
Chinese Chamber of Commerce	1	50	No election			Chinese Chamber of Commerce	Tan Chin Tuan	Uncontested
Indian Chamber of Commerce	1		No election			Indian Chamber of Commerce	Rajabali Jumabhoy	Uncontested
Source: Singapore Elections

See also

• List of Singaporean electoral divisions (1948–51)

References

1. Legislative Council General Election 1948 Singapore Elections