Dyana Sofya DAP's choice for Teluk Intan

Lim Kit Siang's political secretary, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, 27, has been named as the party's candidate to contest in the Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election.

The announcement was made by DAP's secretary-general Lim Guan Eng at the party's by-election operations centre here, around 12:56pm.

Dyana Sofya is set to become the third Malay DAP MP in the current parliamentary session if she wins.

DAP has two other Malay MPs – Zairil Khir Johari (Bayan Baru) and Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz (Raub).

In the 13th General Election (GE13), DAP's Seah Leong Peng had won the Teluk Intan seat with a 7,313-vote majority, defeating Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong of the Barisan Nasional (BN) and K. Moralingam, an independent.

The Teluk Intan by-election is being held due to the death of Seah, 48, of cancer on May 1.

BN is expected to again field Mah as its candidate.

Dyana Sofya is a Ipoh born lass who joined DAP in 2011. Politics run in her family as her mother had held a post in the UMNO Wanita Perak division.

The young lawyer had helped Lim's campaigning in Gelang Patah during GE13 and was later introduced as his political secretary during DAP's convention.

Rumours that she would be contesting the seat began a few days ago, followed by an Internet smear campaign, circulating her personal particulars and a picture of a woman clad in bikini, purportedly herself, in the social media.

It was later clarified by netizens defending Dyana Sofya that the photo is actually of Filipina actress Pauleen Luna.

Dyana Sofya seemed to handle the criticism calmly and wrote in to several news portals her opinion on the matter.

Teluk Intan is a Chinese majority area but it has a significant amount of Malay voters, with a breakdown of 42 percent Chinese, 38 percent Malay and 19 percent Indians.