On 26 January 2013, a parliamentary by-election occurred in Punggol East Single Member Constituency in Singapore. It was held to replace the vacant seat left by Speaker and Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Palmer, who had resigned from the People's Action Party (PAP) following revelations of his extramarital affair. This marked the 16th by-election since Singapore's first election in 1948 and came months after the 2012 Hougang by-election, which occurred under similar circumstances but involved a different MP from the Workers' Party (WP).
On nomination day, Desmond Lim, the leader of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), and Lee Li Lian, a WP member, registered to contest the constituency, having contested the 2011 general election. The PAP fielded debutant Koh Poh Koon, who had joined the party months prior. Reform Party (RP) leader Kenneth Jeyaretnam was also nominated, resulting in a rare four-cornered contest.
On polling day, Lee won the by-election for the WP, garnering 54.50% of the vote against Koh's 43.73%. The remaining two candidates fell short of the 12.5% threshold required to retain their election deposits.
Background On 8 December 2012, local tabloid The New Paper reported receiving a tip-off in the form of screengrabs of phone messages suggesting that Palmer was involved in an affair. The messages indicated a close relationship between Palmer and the other party, with regular meetings on Mondays. The tabloid also reported that the relationship had lasted for a year. On the same day of the exposé, Palmer met Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean to tender his resignation as Speaker and MP. The following day, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met Palmer to formally confirm his resignation. Subsequently, the by-election was called by President Tony Tan on the advice of the Prime Minister following the vacation.
On 12 December 2012, the PAP held a press conference where Palmer announced his resignation, stating he was stepping down to "take full responsibility for a grave mistake" involving an improper relationship with a People's Association (PA) staff member, Laura Ong, who worked in the Pasir Ris West constituency office, Although Ong did not report directly to Palmer, they collaborated on constituency matters within the Pasir Ris–Punggol division. Ong has since resigned from PA after the incident surfaced, citing "family commitments".
Teo announced that Minister of State and North East CDC Mayor Teo Ser Luck would serve as interim MP for Punggol East, while Zainal Sapari would take over as chairman of the Pasir Ris–Punggol Town Council. Deputy Speaker Charles Chong served as Acting Speaker until 14 January 2013, when Halimah Yacob was appointed as the new Speaker.
Confirmation of by-election On 9 January 2013, President Tan 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. On the following day, PM Lee stated on media about his reasons of calling a by-election one month later citing that the residents will need to have another representative MP to prepare for the upcoming government agenda, billed as one of the busiest times to date.
Punggol East SMC
As of 9 January 2013, there were 31,649 registered voters, of which 59 were registered as overseas voters. Punggol East have nine polling stations across the constituency, and ballot boxes were sent to either one of the two counting centers, namely North Vista Secondary School and Rivervale Primary School.
Candidates Four candidates were successfully nominated for this election: Candidates Party Background Koh Poh Koon People's Action Party Having joined the PAP a month prior to the by-election, Koh, a 40-year-old colorectal surgeon from Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre made its electoral debut this election. Koh was the first candidate to announce candidacy on 10 January. Lee Li Lian Worker's Party A member of the WP, Lee, a sales trainer of Singaporean insurance company Great Eastern Life, made her debut in the last general election contesting in Punggol East SMC. The WP announced her candidacy on 14 January. Desmond Lim Singapore Democratic Alliance The secretary-general of SDA since 2011 and a member of the Singapore Justice Party, Lim and SDA announced their candidacy on 15 January. As with Lee, Lim also contested Punggol East SMC in the last general election (resulting in that election's only three-way contest), but ended up garnering under 12.5% of the valid votes cast and become the only candidate that election to have his S$16,000 election deposit forfeited. Kenneth Jeyaretnam Reform Party The secretary-general for RP, Jeyaretnam, a hedge fund manager and the son of the late WP's leader and RP founder J. B. Jeyaretnam, announced his candidacy on 15 January, shortly after SDA. Jeyaretnam also made his electoral debut in the 2011 general election as part of the RP team contesting West Coast GRC.
Two other men had applied for political donation certificates but were not nominated as candidates: Candidates Background Ooi Boon Ewe Ooi was a founder of the People's Liberal Democratic Party (PLDP), who he withdraw from the party sometime in 2011. During nomination day, he was unable to find his assentors, and claimed that he had misplaced his political donation certificate and his electoral deposit being stolen by his driver. As a result of those losses, he ultimately withdrew from the nomination. Zeng Guoyuan Zeng was a retired acupuncturist and former WP candidate. While Zeng had collected his certificate, he ultimately decided not to contest due to his alleged suspicions and the higher profile among other candidates.
The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) initially expressed interest in contesting the election, with the SDP attempting to broker a deal with WP for a joint alliance, but later withdrew on 15 January. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and former Singapore People's Party (SPP) member Benjamin Pwee also expressed interest into contesting the by-election, but later withdrew citing logistics reasons.
Campaigning Summary of election rallies On Nomination Day, 16 January, the Singapore Police Force issued a list of sites available for rallies ("electoral meetings"). They could be held from 16 January to 24 January between 7am to 10pm. It was also announced that the Speakers' Corner would not serve as an "unrestricted area" during the campaigning period. All rallies below were held between 7pm to 10pm.
Party 18 January 19 January 20 January 21 January 22 January 23 January 24 JanuaryPAPField near Block 128C Punggol WalkField near Block 128C Punggol WalkNorth Vista Secondary SchoolWPField near Block 128C Punggol WalkField near Block 128C Punggol WalkNorth Vista Secondary SchoolSDAOnline e-rallyRPField near Block 128C Punggol WalkField near Block 128C Punggol Walk
In an election's first, the SDA's Desmond Lim opted out of physical campaigning and used online rallies by posting on YouTube instead. At the time, online rallies were of less prominence until the 2020 Singaporean general election, where online rallies become more prominent after physical rallies were suspended at the time.
PAP plans Dubbed as "son of Punggol", Koh outlined many plans in his manifesto and would like to run his own campaign by himself without backup from their activists nor PAP MPs, the same way as how Desmond Choo ran on his campaign in the last year's by-election; while grassroots activists and supporters felt comfortable on their decision unlike Hougang, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean hinted in an interview that the results will be close given a multi-cornered contest. Koh said that he would wish to address problems and issues by the electorate in Rivervale, most notably the transportation and rail network, and the expedition of the renovations in the Rivervale Plaza, which was earlier stalled in August 2012 after the previous contractors, Technobuilt Construction & Engineering, faced liquidation, and was replaced by Hak Kian Enterprise. The mall was expected to be completed in June.
While Punggol East is brand-new due to the new housing developments in the eastern Sengkang, Koh said that he would work closely with the government to ensure meeting the same demands as once Palmer did, and to overcome the geopolitical trends as part of the promise made in the last election.
WP plans The WP was the first party to express interest in contesting the by-election immediately after Palmer's resignation, which WP chief Low Thia Khiang, while conducting his Meet-the-People Sessions that same night, felt surprised about the news that broke, but also told that it should not draw parallel lines to the case of Yaw Shin Leong, as it would be unfair for both cases.
Lee was hoping that if she is elected, she will pledge that she and Low would add more scrutiny to the government and the management over the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council; Low told the media that she was the best choice to run on her campaign and said she will be a great asset if elected. She would make door-to-door visits for the two-fifths of the electorate first before focusing on the other three-fifths the same way she did during her previous campaign. Eventually, she completed the house visits before the cooling-off day. Like Koh, Lee also pledges scrutiny on policies towards rail networking and childcare.
Lee was the sole female candidate to be nominated for the by-election. Prior to the by-election, no female opposition candidates had ever won a SMC since independence; the first female opposition-elect, chairwoman Sylvia Lim, however, was from the Aljunied GRC.
SDA plans Desmond Lim, who made his second attempt for the ward, had been loudly jeered by other supporters while delivering his nomination speech, declaring that he is "determined". Lim mentioned that he would want to make a difference in providing opposition unity, adding that he also pledged a 10% donation of his MP allowance, and outlined plans for the next five years by setting up a resident’s cooperative, building infrastructures, and hosting a Satay Club, in the constituency if he is elected.
RP plans Ahead of the campaign, Kenneth Jeyaretanam and his family received death threats online for his decision to contest, but it was revealed in the media that he would want to see a third elected party to represent in parliament to promote competition. A security team from the RP ramped up security efforts to protect Jeyaretanam and his family from harassment and would lodge a police report. The perpetrator was later arrested on January 23. While he also released his five-year plan like other candidates did, he also told residents that he could not assure expensive million-dollar projects. In an interview, he also pledged to be a full-time MP, with a donation of a tenth of his allowance to the charity, and building more childcare centres as priority.
Campaigning During the first three nights, three of the four political parties held their first rally at an open field near 183C Rivervale Crescent. On 18 January, PAP's Koh revealed his past life growing up in a poor family and emphasized the resilience to vote with "hope, family and action"; this speech won praise from several PAP leaders and supporters, given his grassroots background dating back in 2002. Education Minister Heng Swee Keat and its Senior Minister of State counterpart Indranee Rajah put emphasis on the younger electorate and advocated financial support in terms of the low-income and housing purchases.