The results of the assembly election were announced on March 11, 1959, and the SYL was victorious, claiming eighty-three of the ninety assembly seats. The SYL dominated the election partly because some opposition parties boycotted the election and HDMS and Liberale fielded candidates in only a small number of districts. Further, SYL candidates ran unopposed in many districts because other parties did not have the organizational capacity or resources to even register their candidates.

Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, loc. 379