PARLIAMENTARY GENERAL ELECTION 1976

This was the first election of both Goh Chok Tong, who was to become Singapore's next Prime Minister after Lee Kuan Yew, and Chiam See Tong, standing as an independent candidate, who was to become Singapore's longest-serving opposition Member of Parliament. Given the good record of PAP's governance by now, some opposition parties began to adopt a stand more in sync with people's sentiments that no matter how good PAP was, having a few opposition MPs in Parliament can serve as a check and balance on a PAP government that has become authoritarian after being in hold of power for so long, muting Singaporeans of their voices and denying them of democratic choices. Four opposition parties - BS, SUF, SJP and PKMS - formed the Joint Opposition Council (JOC) to cooperate at the polls. For the first time, election deposit increased. The amount more than doubled following a new scheme to peg the deposit to one-eighth of an MP's annual Parliamentary allowance. This was PAP's third clean sweep victory of all seats.

3rd Parliament dissolution: 6 December 1976 [Mon]
Nomination day: 13 December 1976 [Mon]
Polling day: 23 December 1976 [Thu]
4th Parliament commencement: 7 February 1977 [Mon]

Eligible voters: 1,095,817
Voters in walkover constituencies: 238,520 (21.8%)
Total voters: 857,297 (78.2%)
Total voter turnout: 815,130 (95.1%)

Election deposit: $1,200 (+140.0%)