DAP accepts BN victory in Teluk Intan by-election

The DAP accepted its defeat and the victory of the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election Saturday.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said: "We did not deny the vote was in favour of BN. We recognise the result, and it was in favour of Mah (Siew Keong)."

Gerakan president Mah polled 20,157 votes to beat Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud of the DAP by a majority of 238 votes and recaptured the seat won by the DAP in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. Dyana Sofya had garnered 19,919 votes.

Asked whether the DAP would challenge the by-election result, Lim said: "I did not say that I will challenge (the result). It needs some time to make an evaluation."

He spoke to reporters when asked to comment on Mah's victory in the by-election.

Lim, who is the chief minister of Penang, said one reason for the DAP defeat was that its candidate was still new and the other was that there was a low turnout of voters residing outside the constituency.

He said that despite the loss, the party believed that it had sparked a new political wave among young people with the fielding of Dyana Sofya in the by-election.

Earlier, DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, when addressing about 200 Pakatan Rakyat supporters here, admitted that a low turnout of voters from outside the constituency resulted in the party's defeat.

"I thank all those who returned (to vote). If more had returned, it would have been better," he said.