Punggol East Single Member Constituency

The ward was previously part of 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] Kenneth Jeyaretnam and Desmond 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 Rivervale.[9]

• Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC
• Sengkang GRC

• Result of 2011 General Election
• Resignation of Michael Palmer, MP, Punggol East SMC