1963 Singaporean general election

1963 Singaporean general election

← 1959 21 September 1963 1968 →
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All 51 seats in the Legislative Assembly 26 seats needed for a majority
Registered	617,750
Turnout	95.11% ( 5.04pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Lee Kuan Yew Lee Siew Choh Ong Eng Guan Party PAP BS UPP Last election 54.08%, 43 seats – – Seats won 37 13 1 Seat change 6 New New Popular vote 272,924 193,301 48,785 Percentage 46.93% 33.24% 8.39% Swing 7.15pp New New
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Lee Kuan Yew PAP Prime Minister after election Lee Kuan Yew PAP

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General elections were held in Singapore on 21 September 1963, five days after Singapore became part of Malaysia. Voters elected all 51 members of the Legislative Assembly. The elections were the only ones to date with no boundary changes to any existing constituencies prior to the elections. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party (PAP), which won 37 of the 51 seats, while the majority of the remaining seats were won by Barisan Sosialis (BS).

The ruling party of Malaysia, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), contested the elections as part of the Singapore Alliance Party (SAP) in an attempt to oust the PAP, violating a previous agreement not to do so^{[citation needed]} and straining relations between the two parties. The Alliance lost all seven seats which it held prior to the elections. Their participation in the elections prompted the PAP to contest seats in Peninsula Malaysia in the next federal election held in 1964, further adding to more tension between the two ruling parties.

As Singapore would gain independence in 1965, the elections were the only ones held as a state of Malaysia. After independence, the elected members of the Legislative Assembly would then become Members of the inaugural Parliament of Singapore.

A total of 210 candidates contested the elections – making it the largest slate of candidates to contest ever in Singapore's history. The ruling PAP – 51 candidates, its breakaway parties BS – 46 candidates and UPP – 46 candidates and the Alliance, the Singapore branch of the Malaysian federal ruling coalition – 42 candidates all vied to form the next government. This also marked the last time that any other party than the PAP would field candidates in more than half the total parliamentary seats. With two breakaway factions of the PAP fielding nearly full slate of candidates, this was the most hard fought election in Singapore's history and particularly for the ruling PAP.

This was the most recent general election in which the PAP received less than half of the popular vote, at only 47%. It was also the last general election in which an incumbent minister was defeated until 2011 and the last general election in which all seats were contested until 2015.