May 1977 Parliamentary By-election

The by-election for the Radin Mas constituency was held to fill the parliamentary seat left vacant by the death of People’s Action Party (PAP) member of parliament (MP), N. Govindasamy. Govindasamy had won the seat by defeating Othman Abdullah of the Workers’ Party (WP) in the general election held the year before.^[1]

Nomination day for the by-election was set for 4 May 1977 with polling to follow on 14 May.^[2] Two candidates, PAP’s Bernard Chen Tien Lap and WP’s secretary-general J. B. Jeyaretnam, vied for the seat. This was the latter’s third attempt to gain a seat in parliament.^[3] The PAP won by a large majority with Chen polling 12,053 votes against Jeyaretnam’s 5,021.^[4]

References
1. Government of Singapore. (2012, June 7). 1976 parliamentary election results. Retrieved September 5, 2013, from Singapore Elections Department website: http://www.eld.gov.sg/elections_past_parliamentary1976.html#R
2. Ministry of Culture. (1977, April 23). Date of nomination of candidates for the by-election of the electoral division of Radin Mas to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. N. Govindasamy [Press release]. Retrieved December 5, 2013, from National Archives of Singapore website: http://archivesonline.nas.sg/
3. Straight fight for Radin Mas. (1977, May 5). The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
4. Government of Singapore. (2011, October 18). 1976 parliamentary by-election results. Retrieved September 5, 2013, from Singapore Elections Department website: http://www.eld.gov.sg/elections_past_by1977b.html