1959 Malayan general election
general election in Malaya
General elections were held in the Federation of Malaya on Wednesday, 19 August 1959 for members of the first Parliament of the Federation of Malaya, the first parliamentary election in Malaya. It was the third national-wide election held in Malaya since the end of World War II. This would be the last Malayan election, before the country was superseded by Malaysia with three other states of Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore in 1963. Voting took place in all 104 parliamentary constituencies of Malaya, each electing one Member of Parliament to the Dewan Rakyat, the dominant house of Parliament. Voter turnout was 73.34%.
Prior to the general election, state elections took place in all 282 state constituencies in 11 states of Malaya from 20 May to 24 June 1959, each electing one Member to the State Legislative Assembly, the Dewan Undangan Negeri. As a result, PAS took over the administration of Terengganu and Kelantan but served only 2 terms before being retaken by Alliance.
The results saw Alliance Party emerged as the victor in a landslide victory. The party was a coalition formed by United Malays National Organisation, Malayan Chinese Association and Malayan Indian Congress. The coalition won 74 out of 104 seats in the Dewan Rakyat with only 52% of the total vote. The opposition as a whole won 30 seats with 48% of the vote.
“1959 Malayan general election” enters the record as general election in Malaya. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Malayan, general and election can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6741606. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1959 and 1963.
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