TELUK INTAN, May 26 — Perak DAP leaders alleged today a gambling syndicate with RM3 million funds has taken root in this sleepy hollow and is trying to offering prize money in an attempt to influence the way the vote will be cast in the May 31 by-election.

But state DAP chief Nga Kor Ming stopped short of saying whom or which political party the syndicate was backing for the win in the upcoming polls, stressing instead that his party did not have that amount of money to splurge.

“There are parties commanding a major gambling syndicate… My sources told me that no less than RM3 million is being spent for the syndicate,” Nga told reporters here.

“Their method is easy. The one offering the prize money would wager on Dyana winning,” he gave an example, referring to DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

This, in return, would make hopeful gamblers to bet on Barisan Nasional’s (BN) candidate Datuk Mah Siew Keong.

The gamblers would then inadvertently vote for Mah in order to win their bets, Nga explained.

“If one vote is worth RM1,000, they could have bought 3,000 votes,” Nga said, referring to the RM3 million spent.

Nga had compared this to Perak DAP adviser Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham, who allegedly lost the Beruas parliamentary seat in 1990 to the late Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik, allegedly due to the machinations of another gambling syndicate.

“We’re worried that this incident will repeat itself if this syndicate succeeds in baiting voters,” Nga said.

In the 1990 general elections, Ngeh lost to Lim by a slim majority of 731, but Lim, who was also a Gerakan president then, had refused to respond to Ngeh’s allegation of foul play.

In a bid to shed its image as a predominantly Chinese party, DAP has picked a young Malay woman, Dyana, as its candidate for the by-election in Teluk Intan, a Chinese-majority constituency.

The Teluk Intan by-election, which is scheduled on May 31, was triggered after DAP MP Seah Leong Peng recently died from cancer.

In the May 5 general election last year, Seah defeated BN’s Datuk Mah Siew Keong with a 7,313-vote majority.

The voter base in Teluk Intan is 42 per cent Chinese, 38 per cent Malay and 19 per cent Indian.