# Anson Constituency

Anson Constituency was a constituency in Singapore. It used to exist from 1959 to 1988 and was merged into Tiong Bahru Group Representation Constituency in 1988.

## History

In 1981, incumbent MP Devan Nair resigned from the PAP and the Parliament to accept the then largely ceremonial office of President as the country's head of state. This resulted in the third time Anson had a by-election. Nominations for the by-election started on 21 October. Three candidates were nominated for the by-election: PAP had Pang Kim Hin, the nephew of former minister Lim Kim San; Workers' Party (WP) secretary-general J.B. Jeyaretnam; and United People's Front Harbans Singh. Chiam See Tong, who recently founded Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) a year prior to the by-election, expressed interest but withdrew later and backed Jeyaretnam.
The by-election was eventually won by Jeyaretnam of WP, the first time in Singapore since 1963 when a party candidate not from the PAP had won a parliamentary seat.
In 1988, the constituency was dissolved following the establishment of Group representation constituency (GRC) and Single Member Consituency (SMC).

## Member of Parliament

| Year | Member of Parliament | Party |
| Legislative Assembly of Singapore ||||
| 1959 | Baharuddin bin Mohamed Ariff | PAP |
| 1961 | David Marshall | WP |
| 1963 | Perumal Govindaswamy | PAP |
| Parliament of Singapore ||||
| 1968 | Perumal Govindaswamy | PAP |
| 1972 | Perumal Govindaswamy | PAP |
| 1976 | Perumal Govindaswamy | PAP |
| 1979 | Devan Nair | PAP |
| 1980 | Devan Nair | PAP |
| 1981 | J.B. Jeyaretnam | WP |
| 1984 | J.B. Jeyaretnam | WP |

## Electoral results

Note : Elections Department Singapore do not include rejected votes for calculation of candidate's vote share. Hence, the total of all candidates' vote share will be 100%.

### Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | PAP | Baharuddin bin Mohamed Ariff | 5,167 | 60.7 |
| | SPA | Goh Kong Beng | 1,875 | 22.0 |
| | LSP | Tan Cheng Chuan | 1,231 | 14.5 |
| | Independent | Wong Swee Kee | 117 | 1.4 |
| | Independent | Krishaan Pakirisamy | 116 | 1.4 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 3,292 | 38.7 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 8,608 | 86.8 |
| | PAP win (new seat) | PAP win (new seat) | PAP win (new seat) | PAP win (new seat) |

### Elections in the 1960s

By-election of 15 July 1961: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | WP | David Marshall | 3,598 | 43.3 | N/A |
| | PAP | Mahmud bin Awang | 3,052 | 36.7 | 24.0 |
| | SA | Chee Phui Hung | 1,482 | 17.8 | 4.2 |
| | LSP | Mohammed Ismail bin Haji Mohammed Hussain | 104 | 1.3 | 13.2 |
| | Singapore Congress | Mohammed Ibrahim bin Mohd Kassim | 69 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 546 | 6.6 | 32.1 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 9,566 | 97.5 | 10.7 |
| | WP gain from PAP | WP gain from PAP | Swing | | |
General Election 1963: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | PAP | Perumal Govindaswamy | 3,957 | 46.9 | 10.2 |
| | BS | Chan Chong Keen | 3,123 | 37.0 | N/A |
| | SA | Arthur K. Iasac | 543 | 6.4 | −11.4 |
| | Independent | David Saul Marshall | 416 | 4.9 | |
| | UPP | V. Vythalingam | 306 | 3.6 | |
| | WP | Chiang Seok Keong | 91 | 1.1 | −42.2 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 834 | 9.9 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 8,506 | 92.5 | |
| | PAP gain from WP | PAP gain from WP | Swing | N/A | |
General Election 1968: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | PAP | Perumal Govindaswamy | Unopposed | Unopposed | Unopposed |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 8,764 | | |
| | PAP hold | PAP hold | PAP hold | PAP hold | PAP hold |

### Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1972: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | PAP | Perumal Govindaswamy | 5,027 | 74.3 | N/A |
| | WP | Tay Kim Oh | 1,291 | 19.1 | N/A |
| | United National Front | Paul C. Kunjaraman | 444 | 6.6 | N/A |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 3,736 | 55.2 | N/A |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 6,899 | 84.4 | N/A |
| | PAP hold | PAP hold | Swing | N/A | |
General Election 1976: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | PAP | Perumal Govindaswamy | Unopposed | Unopposed | Unopposed |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 12,755 | | |
| | PAP hold | PAP hold | PAP hold | PAP hold | PAP hold |
By-election 1979: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | PAP | Devan Nair | 8,127 | 86.2 | N/A |
| | DPP | Johnny Wee Lai Seng | 1,300 | 13.8 | N/A |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 6,827 | 72.4 | N/A |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 9,694 | 86.2 | N/A |
| | PAP hold | PAP hold | Swing | N/A | |

### Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1980: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | PAP | Devan Nair | 11,564 | 84.1 | −2.1 |
| | United People's Front | P.M. Thevar | 2,187 | 15.9 | N/A |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 9,377 | 68.2 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 14,224 | 94.3 | +8.1 |
| | PAP hold | PAP hold | Swing | -2.1 | |
By-election 1981: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | WP | J.B. Jeyaretnam | 7,012 | 51.9 | +51.9 |
| | PAP | Pang Kim Hin | 6,359 | 47.1 | −37.0 |
| | United People's Front | Harbans Singh | 131 | 1.0 | −14.9 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 653 | 4.8 | N/A |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 13,746 | 94.7 | +0.3 |
| | WP gain from PAP | WP gain from PAP | Swing | N/A | |
General Election 1984: Anson :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | WP | J.B. Jeyaretnam | 9,909 | 56.8 | +4.9 |
| | PAP | Ng Pock Too | 7,533 | 43.2 | −3.9 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 2,376 | 13.6 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 17,764 | 96.1 | |
| | WP hold | WP hold | Swing | | |