Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly was the legislature of the government from 1955 to 1965 and the predecessor of the Parliament. The Rendel Constitution, proposed in 1953, sought to give the local population more self-governance as the Merdeka independence movement grew. This Constitution took effect upon the conclusion of the general election of 1955, creating a new Legislative Assembly to replace the Legislative Council. In contrast to the Legislative Council, the majority of seats in the Legislative Assembly in 1955 were allotted by election rather than appointment by the colonial administration. 25 seats were elected and 7 were appointed. The colonial administration still reserved significant power, such as that of veto and control of certain aspects of government.

Ensuing activism for self-governance by David Marshall and Lim Yew Hock led to a further amendment of the Constitution in 1958, which proposed a fully elected body of 51 seats. This proposal took effect upon the conclusion of the 1959 general election. Upon the independence in 1965, the Legislative Assembly was renamed to Parliament.

List of sessions

Legislative Assembly	Speaker	Chief Minister / Prime Minister	Commenced	Session	Session dates	Dissolved	By-elections
1st (1955)	Sir George Oehlers	David Saul Marshall (22 April 1955 – 7 June 1956) Lim Yew Hock (8 June 1956 – 31 March 1959)	22 April 1955	1st	22 April 1955 – 7 June 1956	31 March 1959	1957
				2nd	29 August 1956 – 8 January 1958
				3rd	9 April 1958 – 19 March 1959
2nd (1959)	Sir George Oehlers	Lee Kuan Yew	1 July 1959	1st	1 July 1959 – 1 June 1960	3 September 1963	1961 (April, July)
				2nd	20 July 1960 – 20 July 1961
				3rd	31 October 1961 – 13 July 1962
				4th	27 March 1963 – 1 August 1963
3rd (1963)	E.W. Barker (22 October 1963 – 1 November 1964) A.P. Rajah (1 November 1964 – 9 August 1965)	Lee Kuan Yew	22 October 1963	1st	22 October 1963 – 16 June 1965	9 August 1965	1965