In February 2011, ahead of the
2011 general election, Punggol East SMC was carved out of
Pasir Ris–Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC), which it had previously belonged to as a division. Punggol East SMC was the sole constituency to feature a three-cornered contest for the 2011 election. The election was won by
Michael Palmer, the incumbent MP for the Punggol East division of Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC, with 54.54% of the vote, defeating newcomer
Lee Li Lian from the
Workers' Party (WP), as well as
Desmond Lim, secretary-general of the
Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), who respectively garnered 41.01% and 4.45% of the vote. Lim forfeited his election deposit for not winning at least 12.5% of the vote. Palmer resigned in December 2012 after having his extramarital affair exposed, with the SMC being placed in the care of
Teo Ser Luck, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Punggol Central division in Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC. On 9 January 2013, it was announced that a
by-election for the SMC was to be held on 26 January. The next day, the PAP unveiled their candidate for the by-election,
Koh Poh Koon, while both Lee and Lim returned to contest for their respective parties. The election also featured a fourth candidate,
Kenneth Jeyaretnam, secretary-general of the
Reform Party (RP). There were two rallies in this by-election. WP's rally drew the largest audience, amounting to between 5,000 and 12,000 viewers, while SDA used social media and technology to draw audiences via a series of videos posted to
YouTube. During the vote counting, Lim officially conceded defeat. He and Jeyaretnam both lost their election deposits in this by-election, having respectively won 0.57% and 1.2% of the vote. At 0.57%, Lim also set a record for the lowest percentage of the vote garnered in an election in post-independence Singapore. Lee gained the seat for the WP with 16,038 local votes, or 54.52% (16,045 votes or 54.5% after the tabulation of overseas votes), marking the second gain made by the opposition from the PAP in a by-election. She was sworn into Parliament on 4 February 2013, and held her first Meet-The-People session (MPS) on the same day. After her victory, the SMC was managed by the WP-held Aljunied–Hougang Town Council (AHTC), which was renamed Aljunied–Hougang–Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC). In the
2015 general election, the PAP fielded
Charles Chong against incumbent Lee. Just before
Cooling-off Day, Chong distributed flyers alleging that the WP had "lost" $22.5 million of town council funds. In response, the WP issued a statement refuting the claim. a situation last seen in
1984. In the aftermath of the elections,
Png Eng Huat, vice-chairman of WP, asked Chong about the missing money, later claiming that Chong replied that he had explained without having actually given an explanation. In February 2018, Png stated in a Facebook post that AHTC, having reverted from AHPETC, had resolved all of its accounting lapses, with $22.8 million to $26.3 million attributed to Punggol East SMC in every of its financial statements since 2013. ==Member of Parliament==