In his 1983 National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew lamented that declining birth rates and large number of graduate women remaining single or not marrying their intellectual equal could see Singapore's talent pool shrink. 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 and its share of votes plunged by more than 10% to below 70%, the biggest fall and the lowest for PAP since the 1963 GE. No by-election was held for Havelock, vacated in 1983 upon the demise of PAP Minister Hon Sui Sen, for the reason that the constituency would be re-aligned in the GE. PM Lee's son Lee Hsien Loong made his debut, while PAP stalwarts Dr Goh Keng Swee and Ong Pang Boon stepped down. In the only GE among several preceding and succeeding ones, election deposit remain unchanged. WP retained, with an increased majority, its sole Anson seat of leader J. B. Jeyaretnam while SDP made its first in-road into Parliament with the victory of Chiam See Tong, who would hold onto the seat in many years to come. A new Non-Constituency Member of Parliament scheme was introduced whereby between three and six seats, the exact number decided by the President of Singapore, would be offered to unsuccessful opposition candidates with the best scores and who garner at least 15% of the votes if any one party wins all the seats, subtracting one NCMP seat for every one opposition MP elected. Opposition parties dismissed the scheme for misleading voters into thinking that they could have opposition MPs without voting for them. WP's M. P. D. Nair was eligible for NCMP but declined, which was then offered to SUF's Tan Chee Kien, who did the same, and no further offers were made.
5th Parliament dissolution: 4 December 1984 [Tue]
Nomination day: 12 December 1984 [Wed]
Polling day: 22 December 1984 [Sat]
6th Parliament convention: 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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