Lee Li Lian | |
|---|---|
李丽连 | |
| Member of Parliament forPunggol East SMC | |
| In office 26 January 2013 – 11 September 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Michael Palmer (PAP) |
| Succeeded by | Charles Chong (PAP) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1978-07-19)19 July 1978 (age 47) |
| Political party | Workers' Party |
| Spouse | Koh Chee Koon |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | Curtin University |
| Occupation | Politician |
Lee Li Lian (Chinese:李丽连;pinyin:Lǐ Lìlián; born 19 July 1978) is a Singaporean politician. A member of theWorkers' Party (WP), she was theMember of Parliament forPunggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC) between 2013 and 2015.
Lee made her political debut in the2011 general election, unsuccessfully contesting in Punggol East SMC against the governingPeople's Action Party (PAP). She later became itsMember of Parliament (MP) after winning the2013 by-election; however, she was narrowly unseated by the PAP in the2015 general election.
Lee has remained active in politics despite not contesting in the2020 general election.
Outside politics, Lee worked as a Business Development Executive at Clapper (S) Pte Ltd (2000–2003), a Financial Consultant forAmerican International Assurance (2003–2005), a Broker withCIMB-GK Securities (2005–2006), a Recruitment Manager forPrudential Assurance (2006–2008) and a Senior Trainer atGreat Eastern Life Assurance (2008–2013).[1] Lee resigned from her job as a financial trainer to serve as a full-time MP following her victory in thePunggol East by-election.[2]
Lee was part of the executive council of WP's Youth Wing and became its organising secretary in 2006.[1]
She was later elected into the WP's Central Executive Committee and served as the Deputy Treasurer from 2008[1] to 2011, Youth Wing President[3] from 2011 to 2012 and the Deputy Webmaster from 2012 to 2014.[4]
Lee made her political debut on the2011 general election when she was fielded as a candidate inPunggol East SMC, formerly part of the neighbouringPasir Ris–Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC).[5] She facedMichael Palmer, PAP candidate and incumbent MP for the Punggol East division in Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC, as well asDesmond Lim, chairperson of theSingapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), in a three-way contest for the SMC. Lee garnered 41.01% of the vote, losing to Palmer, who obtained 54.54%. Lim lost his deposit after receiving 4.45% of the vote, below the 12.5% required for deposit retention.[6] After the election, Lee served as a legislative assistant toPritam Singh, one of the WP MPs forAljunied GRC.[3]
On 12 December 2012, Palmer resigned asSpeaker of Parliament and MP for Punggol East SMC after confessing that he had had an extra-marital affair with Laura Ong, the Constituency Director of thePeople's Association (PA) office in the Pasir Ris West division of Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC.[7][8][9] This precipitated aby-election which would be held in January 2013.[10] On 14 January 2013, the WP announced Lee's candidacy for the by-election.[3][11]
On 16 January, after nominations for the by-election had closed, a rare four-way contest was announced between Lee, Lim, PAP candidateKoh Poh Koon, a colorectal surgeon who had joined the party three months prior, and a fourth candidate,Kenneth Jeyaretnam, the secretary-general of theReform Party (RP). On Polling Day, 26 January, Lee won the election with 54.50% of the vote. Koh, Jeyaretnam and Lim respectively received 43.73%, 1.2% and 0.57%. This win marked the second time the opposition had flipped a seat in Parliament at a by-election, after the1981 Anson by-election; Lee was also the first female opposition candidate to win an SMC. Upon her win, Lee told the media that her immediate priority as MP for the SMC would be to ensure the smooth handover of town council operations from the PAP.[12] She was sworn into Parliament on 4 February 2013.[13]
During the2015 general election, the PAP fieldedCharles Chong,Deputy Speaker of Parliament, to unseat Lee, who was defeated with 48.24% of the vote. By virtue of her electoral performance, she was offered anon-constituency MP (NCMP) position with her electoral performance; however, she declined it,[14] a situation last seen in1984.[15] In 2016,Daniel Goh, a 2015 WP candidate forEast Coast GRC, was nominated by a parliamentary vote to fill Lee's vacant NCMP seat.[16]
After the2020 general election, Lee was appointed a councillor for Sengkang Town Council, coveringSengkang GRC, which had been newly won by the WP.[17]
Lee attendedHoly Innocents' High School andNgee Ann Polytechnic before graduating fromCurtin University in 2001.[18]
Lee is married to Koh Chee Koon, a telecommunications consultant.[19] On 15 January 2014, it was announced that she was pregnant with her first child; she gave birth to a girl on 1 July.[20]
 Members of the12th Parliament of Singapore (2011–2015) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Speaker:Halimah Yacob | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency he or she represents.PAP:People's Action Party;SPP:Singapore People's Party;WP:The Workers' Party For NCMPs, Gerald Giam and Yee Jenn Jong are from the WP, while Lina Loh is from the SPP. NMPs do not belong to any party. There were two terms of NMPs in this parliament, with nine NMPs in each term. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
