The Teluk Kemang parliamentary by-election is likely to be a four-cornered fight among Barisan Nasional (BN), Barisan Alternatif (BA), Malaysian Democratic Party (MDP) and Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim).

The BA candidate appeared to be a toss between DAP deputy secretary-general M. Kulasegaran and KeADILan information chief Roslan Kassim, though their respective parties have yet to make a final decision.

According to DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock, the meeting between DAP and KeADILan to determine the BA candidate has been postponed to Thursday as the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) will meet tomorrow.

He said that the CEC would like to finalise their Teluk Kemang election's strategy before meeting with KeADILan.

DAP and KeADILan leaders have imposed a gag order on their members until they have agreed on a candidate to contest the Teluk Kemang parliamentary seat to avoid an impression that there is a war of words between both parties.

On the possibility of facing a four-cornered fight with BN, MDP and Prim, Kerk expressed the hope that it would be a one-to-one fight so as not to split the votes for the opposition.

"A split in opposition votes would cause a defeat for BA or create a bigger majority loss," he said, adding that it would only give advantage to the BN.

"However, we are not refuting the right of any political parties to field their candidates," he added.

Prim pro-tem secretary-general P. Uthayakumar, 39, who had announced on Sunday that he is contesting the seat, said that he hoped that BA would endorse him as a candidate under their banner.

"We want a strong Indian opposition member of parliament, and I have to stress that my primary concern is that the opposition votes should not be split," he said.

He added that the Indian members, who had quit from KeADILan to form Prim, had applied for the registration of Prim since the last general elections, but they had not received any approval yet. Thus, he will contest as an independent candidate.

Uthayakumar claimed that while BN has seven Indian MPs, there is no opposition Indian MP to raise Indian community's issues in Parliament.

However, he told malaysiakini that his suggestion to BA component parties had not been favourably received.

Meanwhile, MDP secretary-general Wee Choo Keong said that they will finalise their decision on whether to send a candidate at a party meeting tonight. It was speculated that MDP might send a lawyer from Port Dickson to contest the by-election.

However, Wee said that they will take into consideration of all factors before making their decision.

He added that MDP has two branches in Port Dickson with about 100 members.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that the two possible candidates from MIC to represent BN are S. Sothinathan, who is political secretary of MIC president Samy Vellu, and Bernama assistant news editor E. Sivabalan.

Samy Vellu said he would be meeting PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad tomorrow to present the name of the proposed BN candidate for the by-election.

The nominations for the by-election will be held on May 30 and polling on June 10. The by-election is being held following the death of the BN's S.A. Anpalagan, who was Health Ministry's parliamentary secretary, last month.