PARLIAMENTARY GENERAL ELECTION 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 for this GE. Their share of votes fell by more than 10% to below 70%, the biggest fall and the lowest for PAP since GE1963. The Havelock seat, vacated in 1983 upon the demise of PAP Minister Benedict Hon, was not filled for the reason that the constituency would be re-aligned after this GE. Lee's son Lee Hsien Loong made his debut in this GE and PAP stalwart Dr Goh Keng Swee retired. For the first time in two GEs, election deposit remained. WP retained, with an increased majority, its sole Anson seat through its leader J. B. Jeyaretnam while SDP made its first in-road into Parliament with the victory in Potong Pasir of Chiam See Tong, who would later hold the seat for years to come. A new Non-constituency Member of Parliament scheme was put in place whereby between three and six seats, the exact number to be decided by the President of Singapore, will be given to top defeated opposition candidates who garner at least 15% of the votes if one political party wins all seats, subtracting one NCMP seat for every opposition MP elected. WP's M. P. D. Nair was eligible for NCMP but based on the decision of the party, he declined the offer.
5th Parliament dissolution: 4 December 1984 [Tue]
Nomination day: 12 December 1984 [Wed]
Polling day: 22 December 1984 [Sat]
6th Parliament commencement: 25 February 1985 [Mon]
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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