TELUK INTAN, May 30 ― DAP’s Lim Guan Eng claimed last night that Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Datuk Mah Siew Keong will still be appointed a minister even if he loses the Teluk Intan by-election.

The DAP secretary-general cited the example of former Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon who was awarded a ministerial post in the Prime Minister’s Department after he was made senator, despite losing the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat in Election 2008.

Lim noted that the same treatment was accorded to MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel, who was similarly granted a senatorship before he was made a full minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in 2010, even after losing the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat in 2008.

“We know that Mah Siew Keong, win or lose, like Palanivel and Koh Tsu Koon, will still be minister,” Lim told a predominantly Chinese crowd of thousands at a ceramah here last night.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in China yesterday that Gerakan president Mah will be appointed as a Cabinet member if the 53-year-old were to win the Teluk Intan by-election tomorrow.

In last year’s general election, Mah lost to DAP’s Seah Leong Peng by over 7,000 votes, whose death triggered the by-election.

In what is expected to be a close contest, Mah faces DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud in a straight fight for the Chinese majority parliamentary seat.

Yesterday, Mah rated his chances of winning at 49 per cent in what he considered to be an unsavoury by-election.

Mah’s campaign has focused on bringing development to the sub-urban constituency in Perak, while the 26-year-old Dyana Sofya has campaigned against the rising cost of living and the controversial Goods and Services Tax (GST) that will be implemented next year.