MUNICIPAL COMMISSION ELECTION APRIL 1949
A Municipal Committee overseeing local matters, comprising five Municipal Commissioners, was first set up in June 1848. In 1887, the Municipal Ordinance was introduced to establish the first Municipal Commission and separate its functions from the Rural Districts Council. The ten-member Commission would comprise five elected Commissioners and five nominated seats including its President, the Police Inspector-General and Municipal Engineer. Elections were held for the five wards between 1889 and 1911. From 1913, these were scrapped owing to excessive politicking and organisations such as the Straits Settlement (Singapore) Association and Eurasian Association were given representations in the municipality. Seats were filled by internal elections within these organisations. After World War II, elections were brought back for a 27-member Commission representing the town area. For a start, six wards with three seats each would be filled by way of bloc voting and was the only time this system was necessary. The 18 seats made up two-thirds of the Commission, with the remaining nine appointed by the British colonial government. Towards the end of every year, one elected Commissioner's term in each ward would expire, starting from the candidate who won the last place, and the vacancy would be filled via a fresh election. Subsequently, every elected Commissioner's term would be three years. Other than PP, a new political party, LP, made its debut. Likewise to the Legislative Council election the year before, voting was not compulsory and voters had to register themselves. Party symbols were not permitted and candidates had to ballot for his individual symbol from the elections office. PP flexed its political muscles by sweeping nearly all the most seats, in addition to one PP and KM member, Ahmad Mohamed Ibrahim, who stood as an independent in Rochore. No candidate had his deposit forfeited as all met the threshold of garnering at least a third of one-eighth of the votes.
Nomination day: 7 March 1949 [Mon]
Polling day: 2 April 1949 [Sat]
Registered voters: 8,688
Total ballots: 14,716
Election deposit: $250
|
