Following her victory in the Permatang Pauh by-election, Lim Kit Siang has expressed support for Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to replace her husband as parliamentary opposition leader.

"Wan Azizah's solid and impressive win in the Permatang Pauh by-election paves the way for her to be re-elected as parliamentary opposition leader," he said in a statement.

Her husband and former Permatang Pauh MP Anwar Ibrahim had held the post until the family's appeal for a royal pardon for Anwar's sodomy conviction was rejected.

He is currently serving a five-year jail sentence at the Sungai Buloh Prison.

During Anwar's previous incarceration, Wan Azizah had also contested the Permatang Pauh seat and served as the parliamentary opposition leader.

In the run-up to yesterday's by-election, it was reported that DAP was only willing to concede the opposition leader post should Wan Azizah be named as the candidate.

DAP - by default - would have had the position as it possesses the most seats in Parliament but it had previously conceded the post to Anwar who it sees as the most suitable candidate for prime minister should Pakatan win federal power.

Lesson for Pakatan

Meanwhile, Lim ( right ) also said BN had laboured under the mirage that the Permatang Pauh by-election was a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to wrest back the seat.

He described the parliamentary constituency in Penang as the command-and-communications centre for political change and the concept of ketuanan rakyat for the past 17 years.

"Despite Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s promise of 'shock and awe' at the beginning of the by-election, the Umno/BN campaign fizzled out and did not even materially improve on Umno/BN’s share of the total votes cast," he said.

Wan Azizah won the parliamentary seat with a 8,841-vote majority yesterday garnering 30,316 votes compared to BN's Suhaimi Sabudin's 21,475 votes in the latest by-election.

The win came with a lower majority compared to the 11,721-vote majority it obtained in the last general election while its share of the votes cast also declined slightly.

Lim noted there were lessons to be learnt for Pakatan in the by-election particularly the urgent need to restore the confidence of the majority of the electorate which supported the coalition in the last general election.

"There is no future for Pakatan Rakyat if the three Pakatan parties cannot restore the confidence of Malaysians who have placed such high hopes and trust in Pakatan Rakyat," he said.