General elections were held in Singapore on 23 December 1980. The result was a victory for the People's Action Party, which won all 75 seats, the last of four consecutive elections in which they repeated the feat. Voter turnout was 95%, although this figure represents the turnout in the 38 constituencies to be contested,[1] with PAP candidates earning walkovers in the other 37. 685,141 voters out of the total electorate of 1,290,426 went to vote on the elections.
Prior to this election, a series of by-elections were held in 1977 and 1979 after two and seven MPs, respectively, were vacated; however, the ruling PAP won every seat, allowing nine new candidates, which include Devan Nair and Tony Tan (both would later go on to become Presidents of Singapore) to enter Parliament. During the election, PAP also introduced a few other prominent members, such as future ministers Lee Yock Suan and S. Jayakumar, as well as a backbencher (and later Progress Singapore Party secretary-general and a 2011 presidential candidate) Tan Cheng Bock.
On 2 April, then-President of National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Phey Yew Kok, resigned his Boon Teck seat after Phey was initially charged from a funding fraud of trade union funds, and left Singapore for Thailand to avoid a bail; however, Lee chose not to call a by-election in his place since the current Parliament term was due to end. Phey eventually went on the run for 35 years before surrendering at the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok in 2015.[2] In turn, the 1980 election and its campaign fell exactly four years after the precedent.
The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) was established on 8 September by independent candidate Chiam See Tong, who made his political debut in the previous election.
A total of 43 opposition candidates contested 38 constituencies, roughly half of that of the total number, with the United People's Front representing the most number of candidates at 14. This was the first election (of the only three in history, with the other being 2006 and 2011) none of the candidates ran as Independents. The school streaming system, as well as Phey's fraud, became highlights of the campaign for the election.
Party political broadcasts
This was the first election to feature Party political broadcasts, a televised program hosted by Singapore Broadcast Corporation (now called Mediacorp) where political parties (who field at least six candidates under a recognised party symbol) are eligible for airtime on free-to-air radio and television. The number of candidates fielded determines how much airtime that party are allocated with, with a minimum two minutes for a party fielding six candidates, and the order is determined on the party with the fewest seats first and through lot-drawing (if there are multiple parties with a similar number of seats).
Prior to a broadcast, participating parties were required to send five copies of their manifestos to SBC.[3] The two broadcasts were held on 17 and 22 December. The United Front and the Workers' Party, both with eight seats, presented as the first two with a 3-minute airtime each. United People's Front, whose party fielding 14 seats with a 3.5-minute airtime, presented third. People's Action Party, who contested every 75 seats, presented last with a 12-minute broadcast.[4]
The result for Tanjong Pagar had the best-scoring result for the fourth consecutive election at 92.74% of the votes, its highest since 1968 at 94.34%. The opposition leaders of WP and SDP, Jeyaratnam and Chiam who contested Telok Blangah and Potong Pasir, had the top two narrowest winning margin of the election of 53.02%-46.98% and 59.05%-40.95% respectively. Eight candidates had their $1,500 election deposits forfeited, its highest number since 1972, among which Kebun Baru and Tanjong Pagar saw every opponents had their deposits forfeited inside a multi-cornered fight, a feat which would not recur again until 45 years later during the 2025 elections.[7]
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