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18-550: The Labour Front was founded to contest the 1955 legislative elections by David Saul Marshall , Singapore's first chief minister and Lim Yew Hock , Singapore's second chief minister. A centre-left grouping, the Labour Front won 10 out of 25 elected seats in the legislative council and formed the first elected government of Singapore, which at that time was a separate crown colony . Between 1955 and 1956, after sending two bi-partisan delegations to London for talks with

36-456: A self-governing state. In the 1959 elections the PAP won 43 of 51 seats in the parliament with a popular vote of 53% and having campaigned on an anti- colonial platform with an ambition to initiate several reforms, improve the economy and living standards of the people and to eradicate corruption in the government. The SPA lost power and was reduced to only a handful of seats in opposition, while

54-596: 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. Though many British predicted that the Progressive Party would win and Tan Chye Cheng would become Chief Minister, the results were an upset , with

72-610: 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. 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

90-784: The Labour Front winning the most seats and chairman David Marshall becoming Singapore's first Chief Minister after winning in the Cairnhill constituency with 48% of the vote, defeating Tan (36%). With 12 seats (two nominated members were party members), LF formed a coalition government with the United Malays National Organisation (one seat) and Malaysian Chinese Association (one seat) and three ex-officio members ( Chief Secretary Sir William Goode , Attorney-General Sir John Edward Davies and Financial Secretary Thomas Mure Hart ), which held 17 of

108-505: The 32 seats, just enough for a majority into the 32-seat assembly. As a result, the 1955 elections remain the only general election to date where a coalition government was formed, the only hung legislature , and the only time the government was not formed by the People's Action Party . 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

126-608: The British, David Marshall's administration failed to gain approval from Britain for self-government in Singapore . David Marshall, taking responsibility for this failure, resigned in 1956 and soon went to form the Workers' Party of Singapore the following year. Critics believed that the British were not convinced of David Marshall's ability to govern Singapore well and to deal with the then rising threat of insurgency carried out in

144-552: The Chinese-educated locals, who were very unhappy with the SPP's Pro-British stance. In 1951, PP drafted a law for the setting up of a Central Provident Fund , and it was approved by the British government in 1954, this CPF scheme provides financial security for workers in their retirement or for workers who were unable to work, this scheme came into effect in 1955, when David Marshall took office, and even after so many years,

162-409: The area. 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 ,

180-455: 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. The Governor of Singapore and Colonial Secretary posts were replaced by

198-467: 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

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216-658: The government. The then-opposition People's Action Party (PAP), led by Lee Kuan Yew , grilled the Labour Front government several times on these issues in parliamentary sessions. Later the majority of the Labour Front led by Lim Yew Hock, left the Labour Front to merge with the Liberal Socialists (formed by the Progressive Party and Democratic Party in 1956) to form the Singapore People's Alliance (SPA) in 1959. In 1957 and 1958, two bi-partisan delegations successfully negotiated Singapore's status to be

234-411: The name of communism . Marshall's more hardline stance in dealing with the underground communist movement was only counterproductive. He was succeeded by Lim Yew Hock . The Lim Yew Hock government did not fare any better. Apart from the threat of the underground communist movement, Singapore faced problems in public order, poor economy, poor housing and sanitation, low living standards and corruption in

252-497: The narrowest margin of just 1.15%. 10 candidates lost their $ 500 election deposits. Progressive Party (Singapore) The Singapore Progressive Party ( abbreviation : PP ), or simply the Progressive Party , was a political party that was formed on 25 August 1947. It won the 1948 Legislative Assembly general elections with half of the contested seats in the Legislative Assembly , 3 out of 6. At that time,

270-491: 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

288-425: The residual Labour Front was reduced to a very small percentage of the original party and was eventually dissolved in 1960. 1955 Singaporean general election Position established David Marshall LF [REDACTED] 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. Following

306-685: The self-government power of the Legislative Assembly was still rather limited. The party was founded by three lawyers, namely Tan Chye Cheng , John Laycock and Nazir Ahmad Mallal. All three were educated at the University of London and were three of the six first ever elected legislative councillors in Singapore. The party was Singapore's first political party. The Progressive Party was heavily backed by and made up of English-speaking upper class professionals. Its campaign ideology

324-648: Was to advocate progressive and gradual reforms, rather than sudden, quick, radical ones, which fell in line with British policy at the time, to slowly let Singapore gain full self-government. This approach was criticised vehemently by David Saul Marshall , leader of the Labour Front who instead wanted rapid reform. In the Legislative Council, the SPP worked closely with the British Government. The SPP fought for equal treatment with both local and European civil servants, but this did not please

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