The April 1949 Singapore Municipal Commission election took place on 2 April 1949 to elect 18 of the 27 seats in the Singapore Municipal Commission.
Background The election was the first election for the Singapore Municipal Commission since the municipal commissioner elections on 5 December 1911. In 1913, elections for the Singapore Municipal Commission were scrapped due to excessive politicking.
Following the end of World War II, elections were brought back for the Singapore Municipal Commission. Out of the 27 seats in the Singapore Municipal Commission, 18 seats were elected. These 18 seats were distributed to six wards in Singapore with each ward having three seats. The remaining nine seats were appointed by the British colonial government.
For the April 1949 election, municipal commissioners were elected to terms of varying lengths depending on their ranking in their respective wards. Commissioners who ranked third in their wards were elected to a term that ended in December 1949. Commissioners who ranked second had a term that ended in December 1950, and commissioners ranking first had a term that ended in December 1951.
Voting in this election was not compulsory, and voters were required to register in order to vote.
Nomination day was scheduled for 7 March 1949. Candidates were required to give an election deposit of $250 which was returned if they achieved at least 4.17% of the votes.
Results
By constituency ConstituencySeatsElectoratePartyCandidateVotes%City31,156Progressive PartyM. Oli Mohamed Mohamed Kassim52727.4Progressive PartySandy Gurunathan Pillay39820.7IndependentHassan Ali Jivabhai37519.5IndependentLim Koon Teck32616.9Labour PartySyed Mumtaz Hussain29915.5East31,653IndependentGoh Hood Kiat88528.1Progressive PartyFrank Caulfield James77824.7Progressive PartySyed Hassan Al-Junied76624.3Progressive PartyAmy Ede71722.8North31,532Labour PartyPatrick Joseph Johnson53420.1Progressive PartyVayloo Pakirisamy Pillai48918.4Progressive PartyChong Thutt Pitt45016.9IndependentP. V. Krishnan40715.3Labour PartyRajaratnam Vaithilingam39314.8Progressive PartyTan Sim Hong39014.6Rochore31,851IndependentPandarapillai Thillai Nathan87129.9Progressive PartySena Ana Mohamed Ali68323.4IndependentAhmad Mohamed Ibrahim49617.0IndependentSyed Mohamed Abdul Hameed Chisty49116.8Labour PartyGovindapillai Maruthamuthoo Kanagasabai37512.9South31,482Progressive PartyA. P. Rajah86734.5Progressive PartyAbdul bin Samat76030.2Progressive PartyDuncan Robertson69927.8IndependentCheah Kim Bee1897.5West31,014Progressive PartyCuthbert Francis Joseph Ess43127.8Progressive PartyGaw Sien Khian42427.3Progressive PartyPhyllis Eu Cheng Li40326.0Labour PartyMadai Puthan Damodaran Nair29318.9Source: Singapore Elections
References