General elections were held in Singapore on 2 April 1955 to elect members to the 25 elected seats in the Legislative Assembly. Nomination day was on 28 February 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. 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.[1]
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.
On the opposition side, 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. As independent member Ahmad Ibrahim joined the PAP following the elections, meaning the PAP had four members in the Assembly.[2] Lee won the second-highest vote share of the election with 78% of the vote in Tanjong Pagar; in a statement, Lee also considered Tanglin before choosing Tanjong Pagar due to the influence and welfare with dock workers in the area.[3]
While this was the last general election to date in which voting was not mandatory and despite the electorate increasing sixfold, voter turnout barely increased to 53%, up by 0.61pp. The Southern Islands constituency had the highest turnout at 70%. However, six of 25 constituencies had turnouts of under 50%, with Geylang having the lowest turnout at 41%; in comparison to the last election, the constituency with the lowest turnout was City with 44%.
The election's best performing candidate was Labour Front candidate and future Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock who polled 86% of the vote and had a large winning margin of 79%, while the worst performing candidate was independent Chua Kim Watt, who polled just 0.55% of the vote in Farrer Park. Malay Union candidate Inche Sidik won with the narrowest margin of just 1.15%.