- Not to be confused with the pre-independence era ward in Punggol and Hougang areas called the Punggol Member Constituency which was formed prior to 1959 general elections by carving out a portion of the then-defunct Punggol-Tampines SMC, which lasted until prior to 1991 general elections when that ward was absorbed into the then defunct Cheng San GRC.
Punggol East Single Member Constituency (Template:Zh; Template:Lang-ms; Template:Lang-ta) was a Single Member Constituency located in the north-eastern area of Singapore. Despite its name, the ward does not cover the town of Punggol but rather its boundaries span the neighbourhood of Rivervale, the eastern area of Sengkang. This ward has been carved out during the 2011's General Election and was formerly a ward from the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.
On 12 December 2012, then MP for Punggol East SMC, Michael Palmer resigned after an extramarital affair was revealed.[1] A by-election was held on 26 January 2013, and Lee Li Lian of the Workers' Party was elected as MP.[2]
During the 2015 general elections, PAP's Charles Chong won in Punggol East SMC, replacing Lee Li Lian as MP for the constituency.[3]
Following the release of the Electoral Boundaries Review committee report for the 2020 general elections, Punggol East SMC will be absorbed into a brand new 4-member Sengkang GRC, effectively dissolving the single constituency. [4]
History[]
The ward was previously belong to the Pasir Ris-Punggol Group Representation Constituency when the division was first created in 2006. In 2011, the ward was carved out as a SMC, and it was the sole constituency to feature a three-cornered contest for the election (and also the first three-cornered contest since 2001, where it contested Bukit Timah SMC). The election was won by then-MP, Michael Palmer, who was the incumbent of the ward with 54.54% of the votes, beating WP's newcomer Lee Li Lian and SDA's secretary-general Desmond Lim, who garnered 41.01% and 4.45% of the votes, respectively. Lim was the only candidate to have garnered less than the 12.5% vote threshold, and thus lost the deposit.
Following Palmer's resignation on December, the ward was temporary substituted by Minister of State Teo Ser Luck, who was the MP of the neighbouring Pasir Ris-Pungggol GRC. On 10 January 2013, PAP unveiled their candidate for the by-election: Dr Koh Poh Koon, a 40-year-old colorectal surgeon from Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, who had joined the party only three weeks prior. Both WP's Lee and SDA's Lim had returned to contest the by-election. The election also featured a fourth candidate, the Secretary-general of Reform Party, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, who he previously contested West Coast Group Representation Constituency in the 2011 election.
There were two rounds of rallies in this by-election, Workers' Party's rally drew the most audiences amounting ranging 5,000 to 12,000 audiences, while Singapore Democratic Alliance using the social media and technology to draw audiences via a series of videos posted to YouTube.
During the vote counting, SDA's Desmond Lim officially conceded defeat.[5] Jeyaretnam and Lim both lost their election deposit in this by-election, with Lim as the only the second candidate to date whom as lost his deposit twice, after Harbans Singh of the United People's Front.[6] At 0.57%, Lim also set a record for the lowest percentage garnered in an election since post-independence Singapore.[7]
WP's Lee won the by-election with 16,038 votes, or 54.52% (Including overseas votes, the percentage of valid votes cast were 54.50%, or 16,045 votes), marking the second by-election where an opposition had won a parliament seat from the ruling party, after 1981. She was sworn in at the Parliament on 4 February 2013, and held her Meet-The-People session on the same day.[8]
This ward has been absorbed into a new Sengkang GRC for the 2020 general election, after the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC) released its report on 13 March 2020, and renamed Sengkang East.[9]
Members of Parliament[]
| Member of Parliament | Party | Dates | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Palmer | bgcolor=Template:People's Action Party/meta/color | | PAP | 2011–2013 | Resigned after an extramarital affair came to light, precipitating the Punggol-East by-election |
| Lee Li Lian | WP | 2013–2015 | ||
| Charles Chong | bgcolor=Template:People's Action Party/meta/color | | PAP | 2015–2020 | Last MP of Punggol East SMC |
Candidates and results[]
Elections in 2010s[]
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