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2013 Punggol East by-election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2013 Punggol East by-election in Singapore was held on 26 January 2013 to fill a vacant seat after the incumbent MP, Michael Palmer, resigned due to an extramarital affair. It was the 17th by-election. The nomination day was 16 January 2013, and the polling day was 26 January 2013. [1]
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On 26 January 2013, Lee Li Lian from the Workers' Party was elected as the Member of Parliament for Punggol East SMC, winning 54.50% of the vote. [2]
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Background
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The by-election was called by President Tony Tan Keng Yam at the advice of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong after the seat of Punggol East became vacant when then Speaker of Parliament Michael Palmer resigned from his seat over having an extramarital affair.
A local tabloid, The New Paper, reported receiving a tip-off on 8 December 2012, in the form of screengrabs of phone messages that the Speaker of Parliament, Michael Palmer was having an affair. The messages suggested that the two had a close relationship and met regularly on Mondays.[3] The New Paper also stated that they had been in this relationship for a year. On the same Saturday, Palmer met DPM Teo Chee Hean to tender his resignation as speaker and MP. The next day, PM Lee Hsien Loong met Palmer to confirm his resignation.
On 12 December 2012, the PAP called a press conference where Palmer announced that he had resigned to "take full responsibility for a grave mistake" for having an improper relationship with a PA staff working in the Pasir Ris West constituency office, Laura Ong. Although Ong did not work under Palmer, Punggol East belonged to the Pasir Ris-Punggol division and Punggol East still worked together on constituencies affairs. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean announced at the press conference announced that Teo Ser Luck will be the interim MP for Punggol East, while Zainal Sapari would be the new chairman for the Pasir Ris-Punggol town council. Deputy Speaker Charles Chong served as the Acting Speaker until 14 January 2013 when Halimah Yacob became the new speaker.
Confirmation of by-election
On 9 January 2013, President Tony Tan Keng Yam issued a writ of election for the electoral division of Punggol East. The nominations were held on 16 January at North Vista Secondary School and voting took place on 26 January.[4]
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Candidates
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Four candidates were successfully nominated for this election:
The Singapore Democratic Party initially expressed interest in contesting the election, with SDP attempting to broker a deal with WP for a joint alliance,[10] but later withdrew on 15 January.[11] There were potential independent candidates who declared their intentions to run. They included former People's Liberal Democratic Party founder Ooi Boon Ewe, retired acupuncturist Zeng Guoyuan[12] and former Singapore People's Party member Benjamin Pwee.[13]
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Results
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Before results were announced, SDA's Desmond Lim conceded at about 10.42pm (SGT) thanking his supporters and vowed to 'keep SDA's flame alive' in the next election.[14]
Results were announced at 10.57pm (SGT) where WP's Lee was declared candidate-elect with 54.52% out of 29,415 valid votes, beating PAP opponent Koh with 43.71% of the vote. Two candidates had forfeited their $14,500 election deposit, namely Kenneth Jeyaretnam and Desmond Lim with 1.20% and 0.57% of the votes respectively, with the latter becoming the second candidate to have his election deposit forfeited twice since Harbans Singh,[15] and setting a record-low vote share (at the time of the election) surpassing Teo Kim Hoe's former record of 196 votes or 0.81%, in post-independence Singapore.
Overseas votes were tabulated four days after the by-election, on 30 January, seeing a 0.02% change in the top two parties after Koh and Lee received 19 and 7 votes respectively (there is only one spoilt and 32 abstained votes).[16] The results are as follows:
Aftermath
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The election had seen another setback for the PAP since the formation of the 12th Parliament after the 2011 election where WP won Aljunied GRC. WP subsequently made history with Lee becoming the first female MP in post-independence to helm a SMC and the second female opposition MP to do so after WP's chairwoman Sylvia Lim. It was also the second time where PAP lost a parliamentary seat during the term to the opposition in the ensuing by-election, the first being 1981 after WP captured Anson SMC. Lee was sworn-in to parliament a week later on 4 February.[17]
Prime Minister Lee congratulated WP for the victory and respected voters' decision, and further cited that in a by-election, voters were seen choosing for an MP and not government, and encouraged them to vote for the opposition. He then announced that the government will now focus on current national issues in Parliament including the Population White Paper and the annual Budget statement, and mentioned that the PAP are prepared for a long term with time to deliver results, and would continue to work to improve the lives of Singaporeans, and present the report card for voters to judge in the next general election.[18][19] Similarly, WP's chief Low Thia Khiang told on media urging voters not to take the by-election result for granted and reminded that WP would do the same to represent the government as well.[20]
In the 2015 elections, PAP's Koh would be MP-elect for the Yio Chu Kang division under Ang Mo Kio GRC (and later Tampines GRC in 2020), but Lee was unable to retain the seat for a second term to Joo Chiat SMC candidate Charles Chong in a narrow winning margin and returned Punggol East to the PAP-fold.[21] Punggol East SMC would be defunct on a redistricting of boundaries in the 2020 elections under a new constituency of Sengkang GRC;[22] WP would go on to win the GRC, eventually returning Punggol East (now renamed to Rivervale) back to the WP-fold.[23] As of 2025, the ward remained in WP's hands with Rivervale being overseen by Louis Chua.[24]
The four-cornered contest inside a constituency (which was last seen in 1997 for Chua Chu Kang SMC and the 2011 Presidential election) was the most recent instance for any contested election until 12 years later in 2025 where Tampines GRC would set the stage for a four-way contest between PAP (which coincidentally, their team also consist of Koh), WP (led by former-Aljunied GRC MP Faisal Manap), the National Solidarity Party and the People's Power Party.[25] In the ensuing election, while PAP retained Tampines GRC with 52.02% to WP's 47.37%, both PPP and NSP surpassed Lim's vote share as the worst-performing scores in post-independence Singapore, garnering with just 0.43% and 0.18% of the valid votes respectively.[26]
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References
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