Singapore Legislative Assembly By-Election 1957 (original) (raw)

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY BY-ELECTION 1957

David Marshall, who resigned as Chief Minister on 7 June 1956 after his initiated talks with British authorities for self-governance broke down, challenged opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew to resign and recontest their respective constituencies. Lee accepted, resigned, filed his nomination and was successfully returned in his seat but Marshall opted to retire from politics instead, pressured by rife speculations of bloodly street protests. In his place, LF fielded another candidate but victory went to the new LSP, formed upon the merger of PP and DP, which hoped to seize this by-election opportunity to stage a strong comeback. SMU was expelled as a partner of the UMNO-MCA-SMU alliance for breaching an agreement to stay away from the BE and used an independent symbol. Not only was its candidate not elected, its sole Assembly Member supported its expulsion from the alliance and defected to UMNO.

Nomination day: 18 May 1957 [Mon]
Polling day: 29 June 1957 [Fri]

Total voters: 29,563
Total voter turnout: 12,874 (43.5%)

Election deposit: $500

RESULTS
Cairnhill	Tanjong Pagar
Total seats = 2