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,[1] the first parliamentary election in Malaya. It was the third national-wide election held in Malaya since the end of
World War II. Malaya later formed
Malaysia with three other states 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%.
The 71% majority allowed Alliance Party to form a government as sanctioned by the
constitution of Malaya.
When results were announced on the morning of 20 August, only 103 seats were returned as elections in the Kedah Tengah (Central
Kedah) constituency was delayed until 30 September.[2] The Alliance proceeded to win this seat with
Khir Johari as the winning candidate.
Prior to the parliamentary 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.