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Elections to the Legislative Council were held in the Colony of Aden on 4 January 1959. [1]
In the previous elections in 1955 only four of the Council's 18 seats were elected. [2] This was raised to 12 elected seats on an enlarged 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]
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]
The winning candidates were all independents, and received between 902 and 207 votes: [3]
Despite the pro-British nature of the elected members, the Council only narrowly approved joining the Federation of South Arabia. [2]