Liberal Socialist Party (Singapore)

"Liberal Socialist Party" redirects here. For other uses, see Liberal Socialist Party (disambiguation).

Liberal Socialist Party
Chinese name	自由社会党 Zìyóu Shèhuìdǎng
Malay name	Parti Liberal Sosialis ڤرتي ليبرل سوسياليس
Tamil name	தாராண்மை சமூகவுடைமைக் கட்சி Tārāṇmai camūkavuṭaimaik kaṭci
Founder	Tan Chye Cheng
Founded	5 February 1956 (1956-02-05)
Legalised	24 May 1961 (1961-05-24)
Dissolved	10 September 1963 (1963-09-10)
Merger of	Progressive Party Democratic Party
Succeeded by	Singapore People's Alliance
Ideology	Liberal socialism Social liberalism Progressivism
Political position	Centre-left
Colors	Orange
Politics of Singapore Political parties Elections

The Liberal Socialist Party (abbreviation: LSP) was a political party in the Singapore. It was formed in the 1950s from the merger of the Singapore Progressive Party (SPP) and the Democratic Party (DP), the latter not to be confused with the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). The merger occurred in order to consolidate their relatively compatible and similar aims, that of gradual and nonradical progressivism implementing liberal policies.

The merger occurred because of the weak performance of both parties in the Singapore general election of 1955, but members started to merge with the Singapore People's Alliance (SPA) before the following general election of 1959. The LSP contested the general election of 1959 against the SPA, had a significant showing, gaining more than 8% of the popular vote and contesting 32 seats, but failed to win any of them. Following the election most of the LSP merged with the SPA and the rump of the LSP died out as the now ruling People's Action Party (PAP) gained dominance. The SPA faded away during the incidents of merger, ensuing heated PAP-UMNO relations, and a shifted political focus towards an additional struggle between the PAP and the Barisan Sosialis. The LSP ceased to exist by 1965, when Singapore became fully independent, and never stood candidates for election.

Election Results

Legislative Assembly

Election	seats up for election	seats contested by party	contested seats won	contested seats lost	total seats	change	total votes	share of votes	swing	Resulting Government	party leader
1959	51	32	0	32	0 / 51	6	42,805	8.21 / 100	37.08%	Extra-Parliamentary	Tan Chye Cheng

Legislative Assembly By-Election

Election	seats up for election	seats contested by party	contested seats won	contested seats lost	total seats	change	total votes	share of votes	Resulting Government	party leader
1957	2	2	1	1	1 / 2	1	3,657	28.74 / 100	Opposition	Tan Chye Cheng