BN Youth leaders are optimistic that the ruling party can win back the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat in the coming by-election, despite the ruling coalition being the underdog.

Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang is quoted by Berita Harian today as saying his party is confident that Chinese voters have returned to BN, based on last November’s Sungai Limau by-election result.

"Usually, the people back the government during a by-election as they want development.

"In a general election, they may be duped by lies and vote along trends. The situation is different during a by-election because they know who is in government and who has the power to make changes," Tan is quoted as saying.

The seat fell vacant last Thursday, with the sudden death of DAP MP Seah Leong Peng, 48. In GE13, Seah defeated over Gerakan's Mah Siew Keong and independent K Moralingam with a 7,313-vote majority.

Post GE13, Mah, who hails from Teluk Intan and was its MP from 1999 to 2008, rose to become the Gerakan president.

Berita Harian also reported Mah saying that he left it up to BN president Najib Abdul Razak to decide who would contest in Teluk Intan.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth vice- chairperson Khairul Azwan Harun said the BN's chances in Teluk Intan far outrank that in Bukit Gelugor, where another by-election is to take place after the death of DAP's Karpal Singh.

Khairul also gave his backing to Mah ( right ) to contest in Teluk Intan.

"He has served two terms there and hails from that area. His family also resides there. Whatever may be, we still leave it to the BN supreme council to decide," the newspaper quotes Khairul as saying.