Opposition party DAP today released its list of parliamentary candidates that will lead the charge in Penang.

Leading the party will be DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng who will be standing at the Bagan parliamentary seat in Penang.

dap line up for penang parliament seats 210208 This was the only major surprise in the list which was released today.

The other leaders who will be contesting are incumbents Karpal Singh in Bukit Gelugor , Chong Eng in Bukit Mertajam , Chow Kon Yeow in Tanjung , and newcomers P Ramasamy in Batu Kawan , Jeff Ooi in Jelutong and Liew Chin Tong in Bukit Bendera .

Ramasamy, a former university professor, will be facing outgoing Penang chief minister Koh Tsu Koon, who is newly-minted Gerakan leader making his move to federal politics.

Guan Eng's comeback

This election would see the return of Guan Eng to mainstream politics after a hiatus from two parliamentary terms.

Guan Eng, former Kota Melaka MP and son of DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, could not contest in the past two elections due to the five-year ban on him from active politics as a result of his conviction under the Sedition Act.

He was imprisoned for 18 months for alleging that former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik had committed a statutory rape on a minor.

Guan Eng is also tipped to contest for the Seri Delima state seat in Penang.

At a press conference held in Penang this morning, Guan Eng said the party was confident of victory.

"This is the first time the party has named the candidates early because we want to start work fast," he said.

Internal dispute solved

dap pc 010208 lim guan eng With Guan Eng going to Bagan, the incumbent of the seat and DAP state vice-chairman Lim Hock Seng, 60, will contest the Bagan Jermal state seat, which he won in 1986.

Under its electoral pact with PKR, Penang DAP will contest seven parliamentary and 19 state seats in this election.

Speculations persisted in recent days that Karpal would move to contest the DAP Bagan `fortress' to allow Guan Eng to contest and win in the ‘safe’ seat of Bukit Gelugor.

However, although such a move would provide winnable seats to both Guan Eng and Karpal, it earned the wrath of supporters of Hock Seng and his close friend Phee Boon Poh, who is the Sungai Puyu incumbent assembly person and Penang DAP treasurer.

bagan parliamentary seat election results 180108 The duo's supporters even staged a public protest against such move.

Phee made public his displeasure by eating banana for the press. " Chia Kin Chio " or eating banana in Hokkien carries a double meaning of "said and gone".

Phee is learnt to have had threatened to resign from the party if his fellow comrade-in-arm, Hock Seng was denied Bagan.

Guan Eng is said to have held talks with both Hock Seng and Phee until the early hours of Thursday to resolve the matter.

Phee apparently had submitted an apology letter to the party leadership for his unwarranted outburst in the press.

"It's a non-issue now. Let's battle with BN in Penang," Guan Eng told reporters.

Hock Seng said he had accepted the leadership’s decision and would work together with Guan Eng and others to help DAP win Bagan and its three state seats, the other being MIC-held Bagan Dalam, on March 8.

The confident newcomers

Guan Eng's election strategy advisor Liew will contest the Bukit Bendera federal seat, once a DAP stronghold but now Gerakan's political frontier.

Debutant Liew acknowledged the difficult task ahead as he would be up against Gerakan secretary-general Chia Kwang Chye.

"But in politics, anything can happen," said 31-year-old computer savvy political strategists.

malaysiakini discussion 050208 jeff ooi In another ex-DAP fortress Jelutong, DAP national e-campaign director blogger Ooi will try his luck for the first time.

Many political observers believe Ooi would be a `gift' to Penangites due to his economic knowledge and ideals if he wins Jelutong.

"The Penang DAP parliamentary team is a mixture of veterans, experience, youth and intellectual brains. Hope we will do better this time," he told Malaysiakini .

The prof vs the acting president

The Batu Kawan battle between DAP international bureau secretary, political scientists Ramasamy and out-going Chief Minister and Gerakan acting president Koh would surely capture the imagination of Penangites.

It's a battle between a highly qualified opposition newcomer with vast experience in international affairs against the powerful Gerakan machinery of Koh.

Koh starts as the favourite in a seat, which had 43, 055 registered voters, comprising 56.3 percent Chinese, 25 percent Indians and the rest Malays in 2004.

The seat encompasses the Prai, a constituency with largest number of Indian voters in Penang, Bukit Tambun and Bukit Tengah state seats.

keadilan penang economic talk 261106 p ramasamy Although Penang DAP is harping on a split in Chinese votes and pendulum swing of Indians votes to defeat Koh, Ramasamy may just lose due to its party own making rather than the opponent's superiority.

The reason being, if the DAP fields Chong Eng to contest the Prai state seat, as it has been speculated in recent days, the party will incur the wrath of Indian voters not only in Batu Kawan but throughout the state.

Prai Indian voters, who make 38 per cent of the constituency electorate, are learnt to have had requested the DAP to field an Indian candidate in order to defeat the MIC nominee, newcomer L Krishnan.

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