1977 Singaporean by-elections
1977 by-elections in Singapore
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On 14 May and 23 July 1977 in Singapore, by-elections were respectively held for the constituencies of Radin Mas and Bukit Merah. They were called following the deaths of their respective Member of Parliament, Govindasamy Naidu and Lim Guan Hoo.
1.27% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
14 May 1977 (Radin Mas)
23 July 1977 (Bukit Merah) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 seats to the Parliament of Singapore | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 35,412 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 33,897 (95.72%) 1.27% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Background
On 14 February 1977, Govindasamy Naidu, the MP for Radin Mas, died suddenly from a myocardial infarction, resulting in Radin Mas being announced vacant. One day earlier before Govindasamy's death, Lim Guan Hoo, the MP for Bukit Merah suffered from a stroke and collapsed whilst watching the Vigilante Corps performing at the National Stadium. He was sent to the Singapore General Hospital where he stayed there in a coma for 172 days, before dying on 3 August at 2:40 am. His seat was vacated on 30 June.[1]
While there were plans for a multi-cornered contest, opposition parties negotiated to nominate one to avoid risks of a vote splitting, and eventually saw a straight fight between one opposition against a debuting PAP candidate. In Radin Mas, the nominees were Bernard Chen, a former civil servant, and Workers' Party secretary-general J. B. Jeyaretnam; an independent candidate attempted to contest but was disqualified for the absence in electoral register. For Bukit Merah, civil administrator Lim Chee Onn and Lee Siew Choh of the Barisan Sosialis were nominated.[2]
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAP | Bernard Chen | 12,053 | 70.6 | −5.1 | |
| WP | J. B. Jeyaretnam | 5,021 | 29.4 | +5.1 | |
| Majority | 7,032 | 41.2 | −10.2 | ||
| Turnout | 17,415 | 94.6 | −2.5 | ||
| PAP hold | Swing | -10.2 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAP | Lim Chee Onn | 11,625 | 72.21 | 4.16 | |
| BS | Lee Siew Choh | 4,473 | 27.79 | N/A | |
| Majority | 7,152 | 44.42 | 8.32 | ||
| Total valid votes | 16,098 | 97.67 | 0.76 | ||
| Rejected ballots | 384 | 2.33 |  0.76 | ||
| Turnout | 16,482 | 97.31 | 0.41 | ||
| Registered electors | 16,937 | 3.43 | |||
| PAP hold | Swing | 4.16 |
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