This was the electoral debut of both Goh Chok Tong, who was to become Singapore's next Prime Minister after Lee Kuan Yew, and Chiam See Tong, standing as independent candidate, who later became Singapore's longest-serving opposition Member of Parliament. Given the credible record of PAP's governance, some opposition parties began to adopt a stand more in sync with the people's sentiments that no matter how good PAP was, a few opposition MPs in Parliament can serve as a check and balance on the PAP government, which has become authoritarian after being in power for so long and had denied Singaporeans their voices and democractic choices by changing the laws in its favour and employing hard tactics. Five opposition parties - BS, SJP, PKMS, UF and WP - formed a Joint Opposition Council to cooperate at the polls. A seat was vacated when PAP MP Wee Toon Boon resigned on 15 September 1976 after being convicted for corruption. Originally sentenced to three years in prison, this reduced to 18 months after a successful appeal by his lawyer, who was former politician David Marshall. No by-election was held as it was near a GE and Wee's Sepoy seat would be delineated. For the first time, election deposit increased and the amount more-than-doubled following a new scheme to peg it to one-eighth of an MP's annual Parliamentary allowance. This GE was PAP's third clean sweep of all seats and also the first time there was no by-election after a preceding GE.
3rd Parliament dissolution: 6 December 1976 [Mon]
Nomination day: 13 December 1976 [Mon]
Polling day: 23 December 1976 [Thu]
4th Parliament convention: 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%)
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