Singaporean general election, 1948

Singaporean general election, 1948

20 March 1948
6 (of the 22) seats to the Legislative Council
Turnout	63.1%
Majority party Minority party   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%
250px Results by constituency

General elections were held for the first time in Singapore on 20 March 1948, when six of the 22 seats on the Legislative Council became directly-elected. Voting was not compulsory and a 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%.

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
Votes cast	14,126	100
Registered voters/turnout	22,334	63.2
Source: Singapore Elections

By constituency

Constituency	Candidate	Party	Votes	%	Notes
Municipal North-East (8,668 registered)	Mohamed Javad Namazie	Independent	2,672	24.4	Elected
	John Laycock	Progressive Party	2,221	20.3	Elected
	M K Chidambaram	Independent	1,622	14.8
	Charles Joseph Pemberton Paglar	Independent	1,420	13
	Richard Lim Chuan Hoe	Independent	1,161	10.6
	Valiya Purayil Abdullah	Independent	944	8.6
	Lim Chuan Geok	Progressive Party	892	8.2
	Invalid/blank votes		660	–
Municipal South-West (8,800 registered)	Tan Chye Cheng	Progressive Party	4,125	42.3	Elected
	Nazir Ahmad Mallal	Progressive Party	4,056	41.6	Elected
	Mirza Abdul Majid	Independent	1,572	16.1
	Invalid/blank votes		547	–
Rural East (2,092 registered)	Sardon bin Jubir	Independent	607	54.9	Elected
	Cheong Hock Chye	Independent	498	45.1
	Invalid/blank votes		39	–
Rural West (2,774 registered)	Srish Chandra Goho	Independent	981	50	Elected
	Malathi Pillai	Independent	520	26.5
	Arumugan Ponnu Rajah	Progressive Party	460	23.5
	Invalid/blank votes		75	–
Source: Singapore Elections

See also

• List of Singaporean electoral divisions (1948–51)