Singaporean by-elections, 1967
The Singaporean by-election of 1967 was triggered by the final batch of mass resignations from Barisan Sosialis (BS)'s elected Members of Parliament who heeded to Lim Huan Boon's call on the grounds that Singapore's independence was "phony" because no discussion of Singapore's separation matter was made in the legislature. The final walkout of BS members were Koo Young, Ms Loh Miaw Gong, Ong Lian Teng, Poh Ber Liak and Tan Cheng Tong and translates into five vacant constituencies namely, Bukit Panjang, Havelock, Jalan Kayu, Tampines and Thomson. As a result, the by election was held on 7 March 1967 with the nomination day set on 24 February 1967. Despite 5 vacant constituency are up for grabs, only Thomson was contested by 2 independent candidates on top of another candidate from the People's Action Party (PAP) and the PAP wins the other four constituencies by walkover.
Election deposit
The election deposit was set at $500. Similar to previous elections, the election deposit will be forfeited if the particular candidate had failed to secure at least 12.5% or one-eighth of the votes.
Results
By-election 1967: Bukit Panjang
| Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
± |
|
PAP |
Selvadurai Pathmanaban |
Walkover |
|
|
| Majority |
|
|
|
| Turnout |
16,070 |
|
|
|
PAP gain from BS |
Swing |
N/A |
|
By-election 1967: Thomson
| Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
± |
|
PAP |
Ang Nam Piau |
9,407 |
83.6 |
+44.1 |
|
Independent |
Madai Puthan Damodaran Nair |
1,310 |
11.6 |
+11.6 |
|
Independent |
Chan Yoke Kwong |
537 |
4.8 |
+4.8 |
| Majority |
8,097 |
72.0 |
N/A |
| Turnout |
11,624 |
82.3 |
-13.7 |
|
PAP gain from BS |
Swing |
N/A |
|
Aftermath of this by election
After this by election which saw both independent candidates obtaining less than one-eighth of the votes and had their election deposit forfeited, the parliament is effectively held only by the PAP Members until the famous 1981 Anson by election as the other 2 BS members Chan Sun Wing (Nee Soon) and Wong Soon Fong (Toa Payoh) had opted to flee the country in order to avoid being arrested[1] by the Internal Security Department (ISD) as what happened to their colleague Chia Thye Poh and others.
References
External links
