Singaporean general election, 1955

Background

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.

Campaign

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.

Results

To the chagrin of the British, who had anticipated a PP victory and its leader, Tan Chye Cheng, to emerge as Chief Minister, it was the Labour Front that garnered the most seats and its chairman, David Marshall, thus became Singapore's first Chief Minister. Although the Labour Front was the largest winning party, it did not have the 13 seats to command a majority in the Legislative Assembly. As a result, Marshall had to seek a coalition with the Singapore Alliance which had collected three seats.

In its first elections, the newly formed People's Action Party, led by lawyer and former Progressive Party election agent Lee Kuan Yew, chose to field only a handful of candidates to protest against the Rendel Constitution and became the main opposition party after winning nearly all its contested seats.