DAP said that their candidate, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, has an estimated 85 percent chance of winning the Teluk Intan by-election, but only if the poll was conducted on the internet.

Party advisor Lim Kit Siang said that he had no doubt that if the May 31 election were to be decided by netizens in a social media or internet poll, Dyana Sofya would “win hands down”

“However, the Teluk Intan by-election on May 31 will not be decided by netizens in Malaysia but by the 60,000 Teluk Intan voters, a substantial percentage of whom are not netizens,” said Lim in a statement today.

Insisting that Dyana was an underdog with only a 40 percent to 60 percent chance of defeating her opponent, Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong, Lim said that he needed the help of netizens to swing the votes in the Opposition candidate’s favour.

“I want to send out an SOS to Malaysian netizens to help out in the Teluk Intan by-election in every way they can as DAP candidate Dyana Sofya faces defeat in the by-election although she would have won hands down in a social media or Internet poll,” he said.


'Teluk Intan: hope vs despair'

Lim said that the Teluk Intan by-election is a “battle between the future and the past; hope versus despair; the new politics of issues concerning Malaysians versus the old politics of race.”

“We believe that 57 years after Merdeka, the time has come for Malaysians to move beyond communal politics of Chinese support Chinese, Malays support Malays and Indians support Indians,” said Lim.

Lim urged voters to take politics “to a higher level” where they support MPs who are prepared to take a clear stand on issues of justice, freedom, the rule of law and good governance.

“In the Teluk Intan by-election, Mah stands for the saving of Gerakan and the opportunity to become a Minister.

“...while Dyana stands for saving Malaysia from becoming a disunited and failed state, which will affect the welfare and future of 30 million Malaysians and our children's children!” wrote Lim.


'A repeat of 1997?'

Lim told voters that this by-election is their “second opportunity” to write history, which they did in the May 17, 1997 by-election where DAP’s M.Kulasegaran dealt a shocking upset to BN.

DAP had turned around a BN majority of 13,968 in the 1995 general election to a DAP majority of 2,916 in the 1997 by-election

Dyana Sofya, 27, will face Mah, 53, in a straight fight in the semi-urban parliamentary seat. Mah had been the Teluk Intan MP for two terms before losing to DAP in the 2008 elections.

In the 13th General Election last year, DAP candidate Seah Long Peng defeated BN’s Mah and independent K. Moralingam with a majority of 7,313 votes.

The by-election was triggered following Seah’s death on May 1 due to cancer.

A total of 60,349 registered voters consisting of 59,927 ordinary voters, 410 early voters and 12 overseas absentee voters are eligible to vote in the by-election.

The early voting will be held on May 27 while the polling day is on May 31.