Penang Selatan (federal constituency)

Penang Selatan

Penang constituency
Defunct federal constituency
Legislature	Dewan Rakyat
Constituency created	1958
Constituency abolished	1974
First contested	1959
Last contested	1969

Penang Selatan was a federal constituency in Penang, Malaysia, that was represented in the Dewan Rakyat from 1959 to 1974.

The federal constituency was created in the 1974 redistribution and was mandated to return a single member to the Dewan Rakyat under the first past the post voting system.

History

The Penang Selatan parliamentary constituency comprises the predominantly rural areas of Balik Pulau, Bayan Lepas, Sungei Nibong and the urban enclaves of Gelugor and Jelutong. In terms of geographic size, Penang Selatan covers the widest area compared to the other parliamentary constituencies on Penang Island. While the rural areas of the constituency are populated by Alliance controlled Malays, the urban areas of Jelutong and Gelugor are mainly non Malay domains. The first general election of 1959 saw the Alliance candidate, Ismail Idris winning by a thin margin, mainly due to the personality of the losing candidate who was once a Mayor of Georgetown. In 1964, the Alliance candidate Ismail Idris, was re-elected by a thumping majority. However, towards the late 60s, racial segregation and sentiments had reached a peak which caused the Alliance to lose ground in Penang in favor of opposition parties. In the 1969 general elections, future Chief Minister, Lim Chong Eu and his Gerakan party swept power in Penang. Most of the Alliance parliamentary and State Assembly candidates lost their seats. As a result of a national delineation process, the parliamentary constituency of Penang Selatan was abolished in 1974 and was renamed as Balik Pulau parliamentary constituency. Gelugor and Jelutong was regrouped into the newly formed Jelutong parliamentary constituency.

Representation history

Members of Parliament for Penang Selatan
Parliament	Years	Member	Party
Constituency created
Parliament of the Federation of Malaya
1st	1959-1963	Ismail Idris	Alliance
Parliament of Malaysia
1st	1963-1964	Ismail Idris	Alliance
2nd	1964-1969
	1969-1971	Parliament dissolved[1][2]
3rd	1971-1973	Thomas Gabriel Selvaraj	Gerakan
	1973-1974		BN
Constituency abolished

Election results

Malaysian general election, 1969
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Gerakan	Thomas Gabriel Selvaraj	20,196	58.72
	Alliance	Ismail Idris	14,196	41.28
Total valid votes			34,392	100.00
Total rejected ballots			2,017
Unreturned ballots
Turnout			36,409	76.71
Registered electors			47,464
Majority			6,000
	Gerakan gain from Alliance		Swing		?

Malaysian general election, 1964
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Alliance	Ismail Idris	16,088	48.15
	Socialist Front	Abu Bakar Hashim	12,571	37.63
	UDP	Lim Mee Lee	4,752	14.22
Total valid votes			33,411	100.00
Total rejected ballots			848
Unreturned ballots
Turnout			34,259	85.03
Registered electors			40,291
Majority			3,517
	Alliance hold		Swing

Malayan general election, 1959
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Alliance	Ismail Idris	9,821	43.99
	Socialist Front	D. S. Ramanathan	9,563	42.83
	PMIP	Omar Long	2,585	11.58
	Independent	Mansor	359	1.61
Total valid votes			22,328	100.00
Total rejected ballots			144
Unreturned ballots
Turnout			22,472	72.72
Registered electors			30,903
Majority			258
This was a new constituency created.

References

1. Ahmad Fauzi Mustafa (2012-03-12). "Hanya Yang di-Pertuan Agong ada kuasa panggil Parlimen bersidang". Utusan Online. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
2. "www.parlimen.gov.my" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-05-20.