Dyana’s candidature to resolve factions’ dispute: Gerakan

(NST) – The decision by DAP to field Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud as the candidate for the Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election was made merely to defuse the tension between Perak DAP’s two rival factions.

Gerakan deputy by-election director Datuk Chang Ko Youn said it was an open secret that the two strongest DAP camps in the state had disagreed over who should stand in the by-election.

“The fielding of Dyana Sofya as the candidate was meant to end the squabbling between the two factions. Everyone knows that that the two camps were fighting to put up one of their own men to contest,” he told reporters at Gerakan’s operations centre here.

He said due to the two factions’ intense bickering, the DAP top leadership had then decided to end the dispute by fielding Dyana Sofya, who until recently was party adviser Lim Kit Siang’s political aide.

“The decision to field Dyana Sofya to contest in the by-election was made purely to serve DAP’s interests, and not for the benefit and welfare of the people in Teluk Intan,” Chang added.

He said instead of choosing a more experienced DAP leader from the state, the top party leadership instead decided to field Dyana Sofya, who was labelled by Chang as a ‘parachute’ candidate.