 Elections for the new Legislative Assembly were held in May 1959 . The People 's Action Party ( PAP ) won the polls in a landslide victory , winning forty @-@ three of the fifty @-@ one seats . They accomplished this by courting the Chinese @-@ speaking majority , particularly those in the labour unions and radical student organizations . Its leader Lee Kuan Yew , a young Cambridge @-@ educated lawyer , became the first Prime Minister of Singapore . 
