1968 Singaporean general election


General elections were held in Singapore on 13 April 1968, the first as an independent state following the island's expulsion from Malaysia. The elections were boycotted by all opposition parties except the Workers Party, which only contested two constituencies. With five independents also running, only seven seats were contested, resulting in People's Action Party candidates returned unopposed in the other 51 seats, a first in history PAP returned to power during nomination day.
Although the total electorate was 759,367, only 84,883 voters lived in seven contested seats. The turnout was 91.8%, or 77,952 voters.

Background

Following the resignations of eleven MPs from Barisan Sosialis and two other BS MPs fleeing Singapore to escape the Internal Security Department, five by-elections were held within three years but PAP were successful in winning all the seats, resulting in a monopoly.

Timeline

Electoral system

The 58 members of Parliament were elected in 58 single-member constituencies, an increase from 51 in the 1963 elections. The constituencies introduced or removed in the election, as well as constituencies with changes of boundaries, were shown on the table:

Campaign

BS boycotted the elections on the grounds that Singapore's independence was "phoney" and several opposition parties heeded its call. The leaders of Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Singapura, Ahmad Haji Taff, and the Singapore Chinese Party, Chng Boon Eng, turned up but did not file their nominations. Three precedents were made in this election: the fewest seats contested in a general election, the first time PAP was returned to power on nomination day and the first time it won all seats. Walkovers became a perpetual feature in every succeeding general election until 2015, 47 years or 11 elections later.

Results


By constituency