PARLIAMENTARY GENERAL ELECTIONS 1984
In his 1983 National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew commented that birth rates were declining and resulted from a large number of graduate women remaining single or not marrying their intellectual equal, and this could shrink Singapore's talent pool. The PAP government then proceeded to launch the "Graduate Mother Scheme" to entice graduate women with incentives to get married. These were said to have caused a big dip in PAP's support in this GE. Their share of votes fell by more than 10% to below 70%, the biggest fall and the lowest for PAP since GE1963. Lee's son Lee Hsien Loong made his debut in this GE. For the first time in two GEs, election deposit remained. WP retained its sole Anson seat with an increased majority while SDP made its first in-road into Parliament. A new Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) scheme was put in place whereby up to three seats will be given to the top losers among opposition candidates if there are less than three opposition MPs elected. WP's M. P. D. Nair was eligible for NCMP but both he and WP refused the offer.
Nomination day: 12 December 1984
Polling day: 22 December 1984
Eligible voters: 1,495,389
Voters in walkover constituencies: 550,765 (36.8%)
Total voters: 944,624 (63.2%)
Total voter turnout: 903,499 (95.6%)
Election deposit: $1,500
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