In his 1983 National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew lamented that declining birth rates and a large number of graduate women remaining single or not marrying their intellectual equal could affect Singapore's talent pool. The PAP government launched the "Graduate Mother Scheme" to entice graduate women with incentives to get married. This was said to have triggered a big dip in PAP's support in the GE and its vote share plummetted by more than 10% to below 70% - the biggest drop and lowest results for PAP since the 1963 GE. The Electoral Boundaries Delineation Committee report of 21 May 1984 was passed on 29 June 1984. No by-election was held for Havelock, which was vacated in 1983 upon the demise of Minister Hon Sui Sen, as the ward was dispersed. PM Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong, made his debut, while PAP veterans Dr Goh Keng Swee and Ong Pang Boon retired. In the only recent GE where election deposit sum stood unchanged, WP retained its sole Anson seat of leader J. B. Jeyaretnam with an increased majority, while SDP made its first inroad into Parliament with the victory of Chiam See Tong, who would hold his seat for the next 27 years. Amendments to the Constitution to provide for a new Non-Constituency Member of Parliament scheme was introduced on 25 July 1984 in Parliament, where three to six seats, the exact number to be decided by the President of Singapore, would be offered to unsuccessful opposition candidates with the highest percent of votes and at least 15% if one party wins all the seats, subtracting one NCMP seat for every 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 WP declined, which was in turn offered to SUF's Tan Chee Kien, who did the same and no further offers were made. Also in the same sitting was an amendment to omit the need for electoral boundary changes to be passed as a bill.
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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