For those of you who just exercised your right to vote in the Sept. 11 General Election, you'd probably be slightly glad to know that you have been part of a longstanding tradition in Singapore that hasn't changed much.

The institution of voting for the local population to select who they want to govern them was first established in 1959.

Given that Singapore has made considerable advances in technology and almost everything else, you'd probably be surprised — if not, alarmed — to know that polling is still as manual and labour-intensive as ever.

Whatever you experienced in those few short minutes marking your ballot paper is a vestige of the past.

The following set of black-and-white photos shows how everything also used to be a pen-and-paper affair, which hardly looks different from now.

But to set things in context, here's a little background about the first election in Singapore for the local population:

The 1959 general election was held in Singapore on May 30 to choose the members of the Legislative Assembly of Singapore. Candidates were nominated on April 25.

It was the first election in which all the seats were completely determined by the population, according to the new Constitution of Singapore of 1959. Singapore's gain of self rule followed soon after.

Before that, some seats had always been chosen by Singapore's colonial authorities.

The People's Action Party won the general election in a landslide, winning 43 out of 51 seats. Since that day, it has been the ruling party and has never lost control of the Singaporean legislature (aka the government).

Compulsory voting was also implemented for the first time, after full internal self-government was granted by the British.

Even though Singapore was not yet fully independent, as the British still controlled external affairs such as the military and foreign relations, we were by then a recognised state.

Here are some photos from the 1959 election:

1959: Polling cards

1959: Ballot boxes

Fast forward a few years:

1963: Polling centre

1963: Inside of polling centre

1963: Polling booths

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