President Devan Nair dissolved parliament on 4 December 1984 on the advice of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

In his 1983 National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew lamented that declining birth rates and large number of graduate women remaining single or not marrying their intellectual equal could see Singapore's talent pool shrink.

[1] The proposal was met with anger by the Singapore public (including many female graduates) and the PAP government drew accusations of elitism, and even eugenics.

Notably, prominent PAP stalwarts like Deputy Prime Minister S. Rajaratnam and also ex-minister Toh Chin Chye expressed opposition to the proposal.

[2][3] In March 1984 Health Minister Howe Yoon Chong released a controversial proposal to raise the age for the withdrawal of Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings from 55 to 60 years.

[5][6] These controversial proposals sparked debate and uproar in the Singapore electorate and were said to have contributed to a big dip in PAP's support and its share of votes plunged by 12.9% to below 64.8%, the biggest fall and the lowest for PAP since the 1963 general elections (this remains the largest anti-PAP swing ever in a seriously contested general election as of 2020).