Kit Siang worries Dyana will lose Chinese votes because she's a Malay

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang is worried that its Teluk Intan by-election candidate, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, will lose considerable Chinese votes because she is a Malay.

He said, this is far from "toying with voters' feelings", as accused by Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the by-election Datuk Mah Siew Keong.

"I have been accused of taking the support of the Chinese voters in Teluk Intan for granted.

"Far from it, the entire DAP and Pakatan Rakyat election machinery is going all out to ensure that we can secure every vote, whether Chinese, Malay or Indian, in the by-election and more.

"DAP and Pakatan Rakyat would like to see Dyana maintaining the level of Chinese voter support that we received in the general elections last May.

"This is why I have parked myself in Teluk Intan for the past three days and I have never campaigned so intensively for a by-election in my 48 years in politics as in the Teluk Intan by-election," he said in a statement today.

The Gelang Patah MP said he had been overwhelmed by some of the voters' responses during Dyana's constituency visits in various parts of Teluk Intan as well as in the ceramah for the past two nights after the nomination day.

"But clearly, if Dyana is to win on May 31, she still has a long way to go although she would have won hands down, even today, if the netizens on social media or Internet could vote and decide on her candidacy.

"Dyana can only win if Teluk Intan voters are prepared for the second time to 'write history and create miracle', crush the old politics of race and raise a political whirlwind for change in the country for justice, freedom and good governance by voting resoundingly for the DAP and PR candidate," he said.

Lim was responding to Mah's statement to The Malaysian Insider that DAP was manipulating voters' emotions by stating it would only receive 40 percent of votes at the polls.

Mah had said it was impossible for DAP to lack confidence when the majority of votes the party received in the 13th general election was more than 7,000.

"DAP always plays on the emotions of voters by portraying itself as the underdog. There is still sympathy for the former elected representative Seah Leong Peng," he reportedly said.

Prior to that, Lim had said DAP's chance of retaining Teluk Intan had dropped to 40 percent because of race-baiting by BN.