Continuing the trend of the PAP's renewal just as they did in the
1970 by-elections, six seats, including Communications minister
Yong Nyuk Lin, were vacated on 12 January to make room for six new MPs. A seventh seat in Anson was earlier vacated a year prior following the death of
Perumal Govindaswamy. As such, the seven seats at stake are widely regarded as the biggest-ever by-election in Singapore's history, and it had the most seats changed since the
Barisan Sosialis' mass exodus in the
inaugural Parliament back in 1966. The United People's Front criticized
Barisan Sosialis for abstaining the by-elections citing an uphill contest against opposition stalwarts, notably independent
Chiam See Tong, who contested in his eventual
safe seat of
Potong Pasir for the first time in his career (he contested
Cairnhill on his debut in
1976). In the end, only Geylang West (which one United Front (now
Democratic Progressive Party) candidate was later disqualified) and Nee Soon were uncontested. As of , this by-election was the most recent by-election in Singapore with walkovers. The by-election saw the return of
Devan Nair into Singapore politics since
1963, as well as future minister
Tony Tan; both of these candidates would go on to become
Presidents of Singapore. ==Results==