20 March 1948 1951 → 3 3 50.5% 49.5% | Turnout 63.1% 11,997 11,754 Start date March 20, 1948 | |
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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%.
Contents
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.