Poh Ah Tiam, 56, the state assemblyperson for Machap, passed away this evening after suffering from a long bout of cancer.

Poh, who had lymph cancer, was in intensive care unit at Malacca's Pantai Hospital since early last month. He died at about 6pm.

The veteran politican, who was head of Malacca MCA and a state executive councillor, won five consecutive general elections.

In first electoral foray at the 1986 general election, he picked up the state seat of Pulau Sebang by beating a DAP candidate.

By-election to be called

He retained the seat in the 1990 election, but in 1995 he contested and won Malacca's Bukit Sedanan state seat. He stood against the opposition DAP on both ocassions.

In 1999, he successfully defended his Bukit Sedanan seat, this time against a Keadilan candidate.

At the last general election in 2004, he picked up the Machap state seat by beating DAP's Liou Chen Kuang by a majority of 4,562 votes.

The Election Commission is expected to call a by-election within 60 days.