Lee, 91, died Monday at Singapore General Hospital after more than a month of battling severe pneumonia. The government declared a week of mourning for the leader who is credited with transforming the resource-poor island into a wealthy finance and trade hub with low crime and corruption in a region saddled with graft, instability and poverty.
Hundreds of mourners lined the street outsides the presidential palace, where Lee's remains lay at a two-day private wake, as the carriage with his coffin draped with a Singapore flag in a glass case was escorted by Singapore's prime minister and his eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, and other children.
Many raised smartphones to record the procession and some were heard chanting Lee's name quietly and others applauded. Roads nearby were closed despite peak-hour traffic.
Lee will lie in state in Parliament ahead of a state funeral at the National University of Singapore on Sunday.
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