1959 Aden Legislative Council election

Elections to the Legislative Council were held in the Colony of Aden on 4 January 1959.^[1]

Background

In the previous elections in 1955 only four of the Legislative Council's 18 seats were elected.^[2] This was raised to 12 elected seats on an enlarged Legislative Council of 23 members.^[2] The colony was divided into five constituencies, each electing two or three members.^[2] Restrictions on suffrage led to only 21,500 people being registered to vote from a population of 180,000.^[2] Of the remaining 11 members of the Council, five were ex officio and six were nominees.^[1] Five of the members (at least three of which had to be elected member) would be appointed "Members in charge" by the Governor, and would have responsibility for government departments.^[1]

A total of 31 candidates contested the election,^[1] with between five and seven in each constituency.^[2]

Results

Of the 12 elected members, nine were Arabs, two were Somalis and one was Indian.^[2] All were described as "aging, pro-British and moneyed".^[2]

Only 6,000 votes were cast, following calls for a boycott by the Aden Trade Union Congress, with voter turnout at just 27%.^[3] Turnout varied from 43% in Crater to 15% in Sheikh Othman–Little Aden.^[3]

Elected members

The winning candidates were all independents, and received between 902 and 207 votes:^[3]

• Saidi (902 votes)
• Kudabax Khan (854 votes)
• Bayoumi (704 votes)
• Salole (663 votes)
• Ali Lukman (637 votes)
• Saidi Hussain (580 votes)
• Abdullah Binswalla (567 votes)
• K Joshi (543 votes)
• Ali Awan Moulhi (521 votes)
• Maktari (440 votes)
• Husaini (368 votes)
• Mustaffa Abdullah (207 votes)

Aftermath

Despite the pro-British nature of the elected members, the Legislative Council only narrowly approved joining the Federation of South Arabia.^[2]