Penang Selatan

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	No	Years	Member	Party
Constituency created from Penang Island
Parliament of the Federation of Malaya
1st	P035	1959-1963	Ismail Idris (اسماعيل إدريس)	Alliance (UMNO)
Parliament of Malaysia
1st	P035	1963-1964	Ismail Idris (اسماعيل إدريس)	Alliance (UMNO)
2nd		1964-1969
		1969-1971	Parliament was suspended
3rd	P035	1971-1973	Thomas Gabriel Selvaraj (தாமஸ் கேப்ரியல் செல்வராஜ்)	GERAKAN
		1973-1974		BN (GERAKAN)
Constituency abolished, renamed to Balik Pulau

State constituency

Parliamentary constituency	State constituency
	1955–59*	1959–1974	1974–1986	1986–1995	1995–2004	2004–2018	2018–present
Penang Selatan		Balik Pulau
		Bayan Lepas
		Glugor
		Jelutong

Election results

Malaysian general election, 1969: Penang Selatan

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	GERAKAN	Thomas Gabriel Selvaraj	20,196	58.72	58.72
	Alliance	Ismail Idris	14,196	41.28	6.87
Total valid votes			34,392	100.00
Total rejected ballots			2,017
Unreturned ballots			0
Turnout			36,409	76.71	8.32
Registered electors			47,464
Majority			6,000	17.44	6.92
	GERAKAN gain from Alliance Party (Malaysia) Party (Malaysia)		Swing		?

Malaysian general election, 1964: Penang Selatan

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Alliance	Ismail Idris	16,088	48.15	4.16
	Socialist Front	Abu Bakar Hashim	12,571	37.63	5.20
	UDP	Lim Mee Lee	4,752	14.22	14.22
Total valid votes			33,411	100.00
Total rejected ballots			848
Unreturned ballots			0
Turnout			34,259	85.03	12.31
Registered electors			40,291
Majority			3,517	10.52	9.36
	Alliance hold		Swing

Malayan general election, 1959: Penang Selatan

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			0
Turnout			22,472	72.72
Registered electors			30,903
Majority			258	1.16
This was a new constituency created.