Barisan, Mah regain Teluk Intan after six years with 238-vote majority

By admin-s On May 31, 2014

(TMI) – Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Mah Siew Keong has won the Teluk Intan by-election, defeating DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud with a majority of 238 votes.

The Election Commission officially declared the Gerakan president the winner with 20,157 votes against Dyana’s 19,919. There were 550 spoilt votes.

The announcement of the official result was delayed by more than an hour as the initial counting of votes concluded just before 8.30pm that BN had won by the same majority.

The DAP initially said they might consider asking for a recount due to the very low majority.

The party’s election strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming at that time said it was up to the party leaders to decide whether to concede defeat.

“We are disappointed with the results, but I think we knew it would be a tough fight right from the beginning,” Ong told The Malaysian Insider at the DAP’s operation centre in Teluk Intan.

“I think Dyana is a candidate who fought well and represented herself well. So I hope that this can represent the spirit of the party moving forward even though we have a temporary setback.”

Dyana told the sombre crowd outside the operation centre that the battle was not over.

“Honestly, I am disappointed I was unable to defend the Teluk Intan seat. But this is not the end of Dyana.

“I will not let you down. I will still stay here and I shall focus on the rakyat of Teluk Intan.”

She said they were up against the entire BN machinery yet lost by only about 200 votes.

DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng said the party would take some time to examine the results before deciding whether to challenge it.